Onward: Orange

[voidtreckermods]

Island Hopping

The islands don't move fast but they float through the air, never clashing with one another but often getting close. For the brave this means they can jump from one island to another to get around. Flying would be safer, for those with the means.

The calla lilies don't cover each island, sometimes they can find small fields of them, other times they must go through undergrowth and forests to hunt down the small flowers.

The flowers themselves are delicate, but with steady and careful fingers the crystal can be plucked out without damaging the flowers. The huma birds fly around the islands and if called to swoop down to take the crystals. It's probably easiest if they are in a bag that the birds can carry with their claws, otherwise they carry them gently in their beaks.

Huma

The swoop of wings is a constant sound around the islands, the Huma birds have nests all around the islands, high in the trees. The chicks stick to their nests, protected by their parents though they might venture out under the wing of an adult, never going far. Huma birds run as well as fly and will often waddle across to those harvesting, to demand crystals. A competition of sorts appears to be developing between several groups of birds, regarding numbers of crystals freighted down from the woodlands, and competition for the attention and loyalty of efficient gatherers is heating up.

More worryingly though are the blighted birds. These are pretty obvious, their feathers stick each and every way as if they are constantly in a fierce storm. They divebomb crystal harvesters, talons out, screeching in rage.

Other times they fly at any who are island hopping, trying to knock them off course. Luckily for the voidtreckers, their regular fellows are keeping a close enough eye on proceedings to turn any falls into something rather less lethal… if a little too thrilling.

Sprites

The first sign that the sprites are aware of the trespassers in their domain is a flurry of leaves and down that whistles through the islands like whispery laughter. Smaller gusts and breezes break off to investigate individuals or wind through stands of smaller trees to collect stray leaves, whipping hair or loose clothing around and rattling branches.

Some sprites are more mischievous than others, and while lone sprites can do little more than disturb and bluster, changing directions and messing up hair and clothing, larger groups of sprites are capable of more alarming feats. Such as winds that spin a person rapidly on the spot, or ‘helpfully’ increase the distance of a jump several times over, or blow things carried loosely from fingers too slow to grip when the breeze comes by. They’re easily entertained, however, and can be distracted very easily by being given things to carry, or new scents to bring drifting along within themselves.

Comments

[10billionpercent]

Island Hopping

Senku was brave enough to jump from one island to the other, provided he could use a lower island as his arrival point. He started a few steps backwards and sprinted, jumping at the last moment and landed on the other side, barely before falling with a groan.

".....I survived." Senku lay there to catch his breath a moment. That was good enough!

With that, he was ready to look for lilies and gather crystals, and do his part to help.

Huma Birds

He was carefully plucking a crystal out of one of the lilies, when he heard the screeching, and the sound of the bird hitting his hat.

Senku ducked instinctively and batted his hands at the blighted terror. "Get back! Go away!" He was really glad Hikaru offered him the hat now, it had protected his head but he wasn't sure how his arms were going to fare in this exchange.

Sprites

For a change of pace, Senku had noticed some discrepancy on the wind and after a few days of observation, he realized it was the sprites that Tidus had so helpfully told him about.

He was ready.

He went to that strange moving leaf and with his net, attempted to catch one of them, for scientific research!

NPC Thread: Senku Takes Everything That Isn't Nailed Down

To his credit, he will at least wait until they were nearing the end of the week. Senku did his part to collect crystals and give them to the birds, but he was curious. What kind of plant grew crystals, after all? How did it work?

He selected one in a cluster of them, removed his stone knife, and clipped one of the lilies.

Wildcard
[ OOC: I am up for just about anything! Notable suggestions: side quest parsnip hunting, other plant gathering, the fact maybe that Senku didn't bother to bring a tent with him, and anything you can think of. ]

island hopping

[blue_ice]

Kaiba was still distrustful of the flight potion and the birds, so he relied on his trusty legs to get from island to island. The glint of a lily taunted him from just above...he wouldn't let it get away!

He paced back a good amount, crouched....and took off at a sprint, leaping high---and hit the ground hard, rolling to a stop gracelessly nearby.

"Surviving's only step one," he grumbled, pushing himself upright. "Do you see the flowers?"

[10billionpercent]

He got up, stretching his arms above his head, he wasn't going to worry about a little fall.

"Hmm." Senku mused, glancing around. "Not yet, but we're near the edge, doesn't look like this island is so big, so let's head that way and hope for the best."

[blue_ice]

Kaiba stretched right behind him and followed, carefully pushing the brush aside as he searched.

As he turned one direction, he suddenly felt a gust of wind pick up his cloak and wrap it around his head. Ugh! He pushed it back with a scowl.

"What's with this wind."

[10billionpercent]

"If we were in my world, I could answer that question, but it seems highly unlikely I'd know the answer here." Senku quipped slightly, falling back on what he knew.

He wasn't good at small talk that didn't involve scientific facts.

He ducked under a branch, his body moving instinctively, like he was used to wandering around in a wooded area.

[blue_ice]

"Noted. I'll...keep an eye on it," he trailed off awkwardly.

He crouched low as he searched, spotting one of the lilies and a crystal. He grasped the stem delicately, flexing his fingers.

"It's entwined in there. Should I yank it?"

[voidtreckernpcs]

As he was collecting he would hear the swish of wings, quite a common sound this last week to be fair. A huma bird landed nearby and waddled over as he took out his knife.

It flapped his wings at him, a warning.

[10billionpercent]

He blinked, stopping for the moment to look at the bird flapping its wings at him. That was strange, wasn't it?

Was it just resting its wings?

Probably. He turned his attention back on the lily, grasping it again, and his knife.

[voidtreckernpcs]

It let out a squawk, indignant and angry and rushed towards him.

A display that was perhaps less threatening that it might think as it's run was more like a waddle. But it was rushing nonetheless with another wing flap.

[10billionpercent]

He was startled, which made him let go of the flower and lean back away from the waddling bird. It didn't look intimidating but it does have a beak.

"I'm just trying to study it." He protested, then realized he was...negotiating with a bird.

[voidtreckernpcs]

Another wing flap as it got closer, holding it's wings over the flowers with a squawk and a beak snap, not quite at him but as a definite warning.

Sprites

[sizedoesntmatter]

"What are you doing?" Yug was watching the leaf and watching the other trying to seemingly catch it.

He couldn't think why anyone would want to catch a leaf honestly.

[10billionpercent]

It was alright, Senku was always doing strange things that seemed inexplicable to others offhand.

"I'm trying to catch a wind sprite, but I can't see them. But this leaf isn't falling with the appropriate velocity."

He swung the net at the leaf which seemed to move away from him.

[sizedoesntmatter]

"Why do you want to catch them? I think it's better to just watch if they are around." At least to him, some things are just better left alone.

[10billionpercent]

He blinked at the question. "...I've never seen one before, I want to study it." Senku grinned a little bit.

[sizedoesntmatter]

"I think one can study it in its natural environment, don't you think? By capturing it you might get understand everything because you are putting it in a situation it won't be used to."

Plus it just seemed cruel to want to capture it anyway.

Island hopping

[fun_thementalist]

Gen landed with slightly more grace, but only just, wobbling a little and catching himself on his knees. He wasn't out of breath, though, and looked over at Senku - disguising his concern, but only just.

"Let's try to limit the number of islands we need to jump between, my dear," Gen looked sheepish. "I signed up to help pick flowers, not perform aerobics."

[10billionpercent]

"It probably depends on how many flowers we find." Senku pointed out and got up slowly with a bit of a groan, rubbing his tailblone. That smarted a little bit.

[fun_thementalist]

"How fortunate I am someone quite expert at gathering flowers," Gen mused, straightening up, rubbing his knees to get the grass off of them. "It's a real stroke of luck they had already known about their properties."

[10billionpercent]

"Ah, I suppose that's true, lucky me to have the expert along." He snickered slightly and nudged Gen playfully as he started walking.

"Although I think we're just getting the crystals inside, based on the instructions."

[fun_thementalist]

"Gently, they'd asked us," Gen remembered, nodding, as he walked along with Senku. "Certainly I can manage that much. If all of us harvested the lilies themselves, killing that which bears that crystal fruit, they'd be rather handicapped in the future should they need more."

birbs

[thornsofmundus]

"Do you think it's okay to shoot the blighted birds?" a leather-covered lump asks him in Thorne.tcai's voice. A second glance will show that it is, indeed, Senku's tiny teammate, who's currently trying to shield herself with her leather cloak.

[10billionpercent]

"I don't see any reason not to." They were just birds after all. "I wonder if they can still be consumed even with the blight, or if it affects the meat."

In other words, he was likely to turn this into another experiment.

[thornsofmundus]

"Well, if I can shoot some down, we can try it out," Thorne.tcai says, rolling over and pulling out her rough-hewn bow and a handmade arrow. She nocks the arrow, pulls back on the string, and sends it flying directly at the bird.

Given that she is the goddess of the hunt in her world... it hits.

[10billionpercent]

That was a good shot. He could admire her handiwork by going to get the fallen bird, while being screeched at by the others. Yes, yes, he was the most terrible person these birds had ever met.

Senku was pretty sure they thought that. He picked up her kill and brought it back, looking it over. "Hmmm."

It was a free lunch, who would turn that down?