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-The Great Tree-
The row narrows slightly and some idjit has stacked a few of the crushed car frames going above and -across- the path. This may have been done to ensure that the two rows don't get the idea to collapse in on each other and structurally it might be a sound move, but what they've created is a darkened tunnel.
The tunnel continues for a bit, twisting to the right and to the left so that you can't see where it's going until you've already gotten there. The smell of damp earth, like moss and rotting leaves and pine needles of a healthy forest start to assault your senses as you continue down the darkened path. The darkness of the tunnel is suddenly broken by the radiant light of a brilliantly shiny tree perched upon a small mound of earth.
The tree, the trunk of polished aluminum, looks as detailed as the oldest oak in the forest. The leaves adorning the branches seem to have been cut out of the caution and stop lights from hundreds of different cars. Amber gold and cherry red leaves flicker and dance among the branches of this masterful creation as if in homage to the forests beyond the confines of the scrapyard.
Image: http://imgur.com/CLoLyZr
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This time, Karmen is prepared! She has her sharpie, a very long ball of string, paper, and is intent on mapping the journey. If she is going to die in the stacks, at least she will leave a legacy for others!
Karmen is off doing an assplore! She unwinds string, she draws on the paper. Let's just hope she has a clue about what she is doing, or we might all end up a stain on the ground...
Khol arrives a little after the others. He, as usual seems completely composed, and deliberatly approaches the others to see what is going on. He looks around with some mild curiosity and a faint smile. He might not even be immediately noticed as he falls in at the back of the group, only after you are well into the maze does he offer, "This is curious.. Ive never been in here but its very nicely done."
Bringing up the rear of the trio is the Killigrew. Zoe's dressed somewhat for the stacks with a big, floppy Jack Skellington sweater that keeps falling off one shoulder, and some cosmic kitten leggings, and black skater shoes with black glitter on them. Tucked into a Cheshire Cat hoody, she trails along. "Are you sure about this, Karmen? We found that bomber yesterday, and now who knows what we might trip over."
As they approach the Tree, Karmen enthuses! "Right! And the bomber is amazing! Just imagine what other fantastic things we might find here! Besides, we don't have all the bomber, I want to see if the rest of it is here somewhere!" She comes to a halt by the tree and boggles at it. "Oh, this is sweeeeettt! Who made this thing?"
Khol looks the tree over and nods "That.. is quite amazing work." he smiles and asks the others "how many times have you worked on finding your way through the maze? And is there something specific your looking for?"
"Tis is my fourth trip." Zoe says with a smile for Khol. Distracted from more by the sight of the tree, she sucks in a breath and moves to circle the base. "How in the world do you hide in here? This is incredible." she murmurs.
"Ah, the first time we found an effigy to a rat, rat king, I think. Super creepy, and the rats seem like they cold get violent. And then the weird mossy waterbed thing I almsot got stuck in. The bomber, and now this grand oak."
Karmen bounces up and squeezes Khol's arm, for all the world like a kid grabbing an indulgent parent. "Oh look at it! Can I make one at the Grove? Can I? I can borrow Bergin's plasma torch, and we have a lot of space still!" She then runs up to look the tree over up close. SHe has not learned yet that most things here are REALLY dangerous. "My third time in here. I didn't see the rat thing, and I am glad, but the bomber was amazing. Except the bit when I almost died. Except I did't, but thought I was going to."
Khol pats Karmen's hand lightly and chuckles, "Well Im glad you didnt.. And as for Building the Tree.. I think we have quite a few of them... and perhaps part of this one that makes it special is that it is unique.. I wouldnt want to detract from this one by making it less so." he smiles a little though and nods "Rat king, i have heard of him.. but an old bomber? As in a B-2? Four engines.. giant compartment for bombs?"
"I have no idea. Not really my thing. I bet Karmen can figure out what kind it was." Zoe says with a smile, moving around the massive tree before stepping back. "Do you think the Boyz could have done this? Or do you think it's older than that? See any corrosion?"
Karmen sighs "I know you are right, but when I see things like this, I really want to do something the same. And the bomber... we can look at it later. I really want to ask you if I can have it. Find a spot in the estate. I could restore it as a cottage. I've seen it done before. It's spacious enough to live in, and it means I wouldn't be be under your feet when I stay over at the Grove." She taps the tree carefully, examining it closely.
Khol walks around the tree and offers "I think.. this was grown more than made.. And its much much older than it appears." he seems relaxed, dispite it all. "I could spend a week just meditating before this tree to learn from it.. " he admits.
"You're right." Killi says, moving closer and tipping her head way back. "See those little things? What do you think they are? Look kind of like a beetle? Something?" She pauses. "Wait. Pill bugs? They're too flat, though. The other ones that don't roll up. Maybe?"
Image: http://imgur.com/1LSctlq
"Interesting. Those extract heavy metals from soil." she says, backing up and diging into the dirt a little to see what the dirt is like.
Karmen circles the tree, in thought. "I wouldn't come in here alone to meditate, though. There's some really crazy stuff in this place. Not sure anybody should visit it alone. And you think it was grown? More magic, huh?"
Khol nods "I think that the insects extract the minerals from the soil and they supply them to the tree.. allowing it to be built or grown.. Just as a first guess." he answers as he walks around it as well "But its living magic, powerful and natural.. though I am feeling." he pauses and closes his eyes a moment "I feel all three aspects, Growth, life and death, here strongly represented.. This is a microcosum of the whole of the wheel.. "
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The soil around the tree is rich, moist, like farmer's black gold. The smell of the loamy, fertile earth fills the area as Killi starts to examine and explore the base of the tree. It practically vibrates with living, life-giving potential energy as though you could put it anywhere from a roof-top garden to a pile of stones in the desert and -something- would grow from it and be the healthiest of its kind.
However, her actions have not gone unnoticed. The small bugs up in the tree, all of them, have stopped. In a single moment it was like someone or something flipped a switched and all motion stopped.
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Karmen peers up at the bugs, as they come to a stop. "Well, that can't be good. I like it here, though. It does feel quite peaceful. Vibrant. I absolutely do not understand it at all, but it is a lot nicer than some parts of the stacks."
Khol takes a moment to look at the two ladies, then back to the tree and that hollow , he points to it "What do you make of that?" he asks them, clearly curios about what is going on here
Killigrew hunts in the pocket of her hoody, coming up with a mostly eaten, resealable baggy of tiny starbursts. The unwrapped kind. Popping the last few candies in her mouth, she hums, filling the bag up with dirt, then smoothing the little hole over and sealing the bag. "I think I'm going to go buy a cute little succulent and put it in the magic dirt."
Karmen lifts her spectacles and peers through them, then replaces them on her snoot. "That dent... it looks like something maybe slots into it? Like some magic crystal that causes the tree to radiate mystic energy and require superheroes to save us, maybe? Look around for a crystal. I fancy meeting Iron Man." Then, less flippantly, "Or something small could live in it. Like a metal squirrel, or birds."
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It takes a few seconds, as though the contact with the soil had to be registered as a potential invasion or attack before anything happens, but the oddly disturbing sound of metal clicking on metal can be heard from up in the branches. Like someone gently pricking a bell with an ice pick, the tiny plinks come not as single notes but as though someone were strumming a mallet up and down a xylophone.
And, from up within the branches, emerging from those slender clefts and small hollows comes the defenders of the tree; spiders. These mirror-like arachnids crawl along the surface of the tree with a newly-found speed as Killi 'helps' herself to some of the precious soil. To give a sense of scale for these insects, their abdomen alone is about the size of an apple. They start to descend the trunk of the tree and head straight for the person trying to steal their magic dirt.
http://imgur.com/FzZjNIa
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Khol steps back a little and offers "Or a lot of somethings live in there." as he sees the spiders coming out. "I suggest that they might be a bit defensive about what makes this tree what it is. Including that earth." he moves closer to the ladies, and reaches up to touch something that lays under his shirt.
Karmen jumps back and squeaks. Not shirek, or scream, or yell. She actually SQUEAKS! "Spiders... Big metal spiders! Oh nononononono! Nope. That's enough! I'm ready to spend my next free time at home, with the doors locked, holding a hammer."
Hearing the clicking, Killi stuffs the baggy in her pocket and glances at Khol. "You think so...?" She asks, pulling the bag back out and eyeing the spiders things that are starting to come down. Taking a few steps back, she gets some space between herself and the tree.
Khol keeps his attention on the spiders as he moves after the girls. he is backpedaling to keep the spiders in focus, and not let them pass him to the fleeing ladies. Clearly he is intending to make sure they stay safe, he calls out "Keep running.. Ill catch up if I have to slow down."
Ohshitohshitohshitohshit. She is not sticking around to see if the spiders are going to be friendly or not. As she goes, she pulls the bag of dirt out, trying to get it open without dropping it while running. She is not very coordinated.
Without any further ado, Karmen sarts legging it back the way they came in. She is also telling several words, none of them in English, and all of them easy to translate as languages on a theme of "fuck this!"
Khol backpedals and as the three spiders jump, he flips back into a one handed handstand as he reaches out with both feet and one hand to deflect the three jumping spiders, one he redirects easily, the other two he stops but they glomp onto an ankle and a wrist as he flips back up onto his feet. "Hey now.. Lets not get too personal here" he murmers to them. "we are leaving."
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As the two young kinfolk sprint for their lives down the darkened tunnel to escape the athletic aluminum aracnids, they realize that the hollows of the trees weren't the -only- place that such defenders were hidden. Thin wires have already become strung across the tunnel by similarly sculpted spiders that jump from corner to corner to create a web of wire to block their escape. Who's to say if it's sharp, sticky or somewhere in between.
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Karmen manages to duck at the last minute. She skids along the ground for a moment, then stumbles back to her feet, but she's lost her momentum and is now staggering, which is not helping matters whatsoever.
Killigrew sees it, and then it registers that if they're metal the lines are metal and that might be back. Sliding, tripping, she fetches up against Karmen, and cliiings, looking back to the spiders, then the tree, then the bag of dirt in her hand. "Karmen. Quick." Panting - she's not a runner, exercise fucking sucks. "Think. What could be draining the life from the tree?"
Khol gvies a sharp exclamation "Hey!" he grabs the one spider off his wrist and crouches to grab the one on his ankle and try and tear them free quickly "They transmute material to metals.." he calls to you all, "They want to trap us." as he tries to get rid of them.
Karmen does her best to help her friend to her feet, and says, slightly hysterical, "How do I know, I'm a mechanic not a magician!" As she sees the spiders charge, she throws herself to block their path, but she's not good at this, and instead simply jumps back on top of Zoe. THUD!
Killigrew shoves the spider out of her hair and starts to move like she might put up a fight... when Karmen flops down on her. "Ooof! Fuck!" Ow. Winded, she rolls and tries to get out from under Karmen, some of her blue hair looking rather... metallic.
Khol tosses the two on him aside, and then moves to the ladies. "Its the dirt.. Drop it.. Thats their goal.. " he will close on them and try to get the spiders off of them "if they can they will turn YOU into metal, like the tree!"
Karmen Struggles up to her feet again, and staggers. She then hops, and looks down at her feet. One of her boots is also starting to look very metallic. "Bakavasa!" she's swearing in Punkabi again! "Spike, get rid of the soil! I am too young to be living statue!"
Killigrew brings the starburst bag to her mouth and tears it open with her teeth, yeeting it off towards the tree and away from them as hard as she can, spraying the soil in the hopes those shiny buggers will have to stop and pick up every grain.
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As soon as the bag of precious soil hits the ground, the silvery spiders swarm to it, grabbig it in their ice-pick legs and carry it back to the base of the tree. Only once it's been returned do they seem to relax their swarming around the two-legged intruders. However, for those still aware of their surroundings and watching the spiders skurry back to the tree, might note that up in the branches, standing out starkly against the silvery, bark-like surface, is a large, black arachnid.
Like a general controlling the troops, the larger, blackened leader, seems to not to be fashioned of metal but almost something like glass; an Onyx creation.
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Khol watches the spiders swarm away, his own gaze moving to the larger black spider and he considers her a moment "Ah.. I think we should go.. Can you all get through the webbing?" he asks
"We should have brought the plasma torch again!" Karmen groans. And watches the huge spider with an expression that suggests that her hair is going to stand on end any moment. "Let's go. We can mark this one as a "do not ever go here" on the map. She starts to very gingerly pick her way through the webs in the tunnel. "And I need to get this boot off. I really hate spiders!"
Killigrew gets up off the ground and moves to follow after Karmen, running her fingers through her hair to see how bad that damage is. Nothing a good ruffling won't hide. Heaven forbid she ever shave her head, though. That'd be hard to explain! "Agreed. This one should be marked as dangerous. Let the Garou sort it out or study it."
Khol drops into a horse stance and brings his arms around in a swirl, he focus' as his hands come together and he prepares, Just in case they are persued.. but if they are not, he will move after the girls once they are a safe distance away.
Karmen departs from the stacks, out into the yard again where she finds somewhere to flop and stop shaking!
