[ORP] Snow & Sulfur

[Mima]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]With the assistance of a few helpful zikwa who knew the underground better than most, several of those who had returned from the expedition to the mountains were guided back a bit northwards, towards a place to rest their bones and take some time to themselves. It was a bubbling, rushing pit of water that quickly fed into the swamp proper- in the unseasonable snow, the steam pouring out of it made it pretty easy to spot. ...Of course, it also had a certain eggy stink to it, which made it pretty easy to smell, too. But the zikwa that had led them here assured everyone that the natural scent in the water wouldn't harm them, and in fact was very good for your skin and fur.

(Sleeping Terror wondered if the part about "underground volcanoes" was just something they'd made up because their sensitive noses could smell the place from half a day's travel away.)

A cluster of other kin had already gathered around the hot springs by the time they'd arrived, taking refuge from the snow themselves. But there was plenty of room in the hot water to spare- and even spread out, for kin who preferred a bit of privacy. Everyone seemed willing to share, given they all understood the idea of sheltering in the natural warmth from the snow.

For her part, Sleeping Terror could have just fallen asleep the exact moment she touched the bubbling surface of the spring. But alas, she wasn't interested in drowning today. So instead, she simply sank into it like the rest of the kin, taking a moment to appreciate not being frozen half to death anymore. (And then a moment to wince as whatever was in the water to make it smell like that burned a few of the remaining cuts in her flesh.)

This is an easygoing ORP set shortly after the end of the Shattered Obelisk event, during the few days where it is snowing in the swamp! Every kin is invited to hop in the hot springs, relax, and take a minute to escape the unusually cold weather together, no matter if they joined the expedition or not.

Feel free to have your kin reminisce on the journey, talk about what they think of the weather, or just have fun and socialize with some other kin looking to warm themselves up. There are no time limits, no need to roll dice (though I won't stop you?), just hang out and chat.

[Baneful]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright] While other kin had been off in the depths of complete shenanigans, Deceiver had stayed very firmly at home. His curiosity didn't extend to vast questions of what lay beyond the veil or even what lay beyond the swamp. In fact most of his questions circled around what he could get from other kin and what sort of entertainment it was possible to wring out of the unwitting. He'd made good trade at the fairy tribe, offering his spiritual services to the gullible and superstitious fools over there.

When it started snowing, he did what any reasonable kin would do and sought out the nearest warm spot, which just so happened in this instance to be a hot spring, one he found himself drawn to. He'd found it a long time previous while running from someone and had noted it as something of interest to come back to.

He set down his possessions somewhere safe nearby and trotted almost merrily down to the water, pausing only when he noticed that there was someone already there.

His cold blue eyes narrowed perceptibly as he swung the internal pendulum of wether he'd be as charming as he could muster or simply not charming at all to the Totoma in the water.

@Mima

[CelestialRequiem]

The brothers were finally home. And they both had differing opinions on that fact.

[imgleft]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... uncert.png[/imgleft]Drowned was glad to be back in a familiar place again. The mountains had been taxing and stressful. The bushes were sharp, the rocks all too willing to slip from under you, and the fish absolutely gigantic, apparently. On top of that, trying to keep Nameless from getting into too much trouble had been a task all of its own. And that ever-present sensation of being angry at nothing had not been an enjoyable experience either. Drowned all too eagerly slipped into the soothing waters of the spring and left the mountain behind.

Well...Most of the mountain. He couldn’t help but think about what sort of shrines or memorials he could have made of those terrifying beasts that attacked the group during that last standoff by the obelisk. He could have done some very interesting work with one of those bears. Or that huge fish. Maybe he could even recreate that strange creature he’d seen in the even stranger dream he’d had after the fight.

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... uncert.png[/imgright]Nameless, on the other hand, was disappointed to be home so soon. He was only just beginning to understand the language of the mountain. How to read the signs in the stones and the shrubs and the moss. Sure, a doe and her flock of birds had thoroughly thrashed him at some point, but other than that Nameless had been enjoying himself. Even that final battle had been rather exhilarating and quite dramatic. What had come after the fight, however, had been much less pleasant…

He tried so hard to distract himself with the patterns and signs of the swamp. But everywhere he looked- the needles of the pines, the seed pods of the sweet gum, the flakes of falling snow -all he could see was the thing that had visited him in the vision. That ball of glittering shards around a yawning maw of endless void. It haunted him. It was another reason why Nameless wanted to be back at the mountain. Or at least back to a time before the obelisk was restored. But that wasn’t an option. For now, the only thing that seemed to give his troubled mind any peace was pacing back and forth along the spring’s edge. Drowned did his best to try and ignore his anxious brother.

[Mima]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]She did not recognize the three-legged acha from the journey to or the encampment in the mountains, and surveyed him with narrowed eyes. Certainly she'd remember someone who needed extra help, and she doubted by the looks of it that the severing of that leg was new. No, even if such wounds were in her experience earned from battle, he somehow seemed unsuited to blood-sport. Perhaps it was presumptuous of her, but he looked too scrawny to put up a good fight against anything but the grass under his hooves.

With a glance, she sized up the Kimeti brothers who had joined her as well. They, at least, seemed unthreatening, and at the same time vaguely familiar enough to blend in with the visual cacophony of kin who had been to the mountains. While she didn't truly care about their presence, she kept them in the back of her mind as "around, so try your best not to draw the ire of." Even though she'd be ecstatic to try it, she doubted she'd fare too well against three kin trying to kill her for her spot in the spring all at once. (Or perhaps more like two and a half, she thought.)

Not that she cared about sharing, anyhow. This place was not hers. It did not matter.

"It'll freeze over by the time you've made up your mind," she snarked pointedly to the acha buck, albeit retaining a somewhat playful tone to her voice. She felt comfortable with a little teasing, though perhaps not voicing the meanest parts of her thoughts. He hadn't done anything to deserve it yet, she was just a little rude by nature.

@Baneful

[Toshiful]

[imgleft]https://matope-swamp.com/images/phoenix ... uncert.png[/imgleft] Before anyone else could make up their mind,  a fourth figure approached with very slow but fixed purpose, and slipped with an ecstatic sigh into the hot water, without asking for any permission whatsoever.

"Oh," Bath said throatily, "Feels absolutely wicked."

His fluff puffed about him in the water. He'd pay for it later, since there was nowhere to dry off without covering himself in ice, but he'd trouble himself with a solution later.

He seemed to come better aware of company, although his eyes were getting heavy.

"Oh? Come for a dip?" he asked Deceiver, resting his back against a hot rock. This was exactly the spot. "I know I'll pay for it later, but it's misery to resist."

Mud Bath was visibly covered in nicks and bruises and the hot water was wonders for all the parts of him that were tired and swollen. Snow! At the height of the summer. He felt like he'd been cold for months.

@Baneful

[Baneful]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]

Deceiver was making his way over to the water when Bath arrived and let himself in. His expression immediately froze, his eyes going wide as he recognised the other kin. He'd wandered away from Seven for a reason, and seeing someone from there was a flashback in itself. It made everything more awkward, and for a moment he weighed up just turning around and leaving.

But warmth was a draw he couldn't refuse, without much meat on his bones, he wasn't going to pass it up.

Clenching his teeth with tension, he slipped into the water, keeping to the shallows.

"It'll be hard for it to freeze over." he said. "With all the chunks of hair in it from all of you."
@Toshiful @Mima

[Mima]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]Now that acha, she recognized. Though she had not caught his name at the Obelisk, she recalled him assisting them with the skirmish at the end... and perhaps knocking some horns together. Had it been with that other acha, the one who had, in the most delicate description possible, bitten the fucking daylights out of her? She was pretty sure she recalled something like that.

Still, she felt a strange sense of camaraderie with him that she did not feel for this newcomer. Who, of course, made yet more of a nuisance of himself with his complaint.

She chuckled, not so much nervously as one-hoof-over-the-breaking-point-already...ly.

"Feel like I barely have any hair left," Sleeping Terror fired back, "after whatever you call what happened up there." This was an obvious lie. She was a Totoma. There was always more wool.

@Baneful @Toshiful

[Toshiful]

[imgleft]https://matope-swamp.com/images/phoenix ... uncert.png[/imgleft] "Oh yes, awful business," Bath acquiesced to Terror. "I confess I can't make heads or tails of it. Dreams made real, in the absolute worst possible connotations of that concept."

"You kept out of it," he noted to his other.

"Admirable. I told Zar, the next time I have a harebrained idea that involves anything remotely resembling a mountain, restrain me. What fur I'm missing isn't in the spring. It's likely blown all the way to the plains, after it was torn off. What I wouldn't give for a hoof rub." Bath melted further into the heat.

@Baneful @Mima

[Baneful]

Deceiver hadn't been part of the events that occurred but instead had taken one look at the departing party, with their strange mare companion and had decided that he just wasn't going to get involved. Good thing too, it seemed like, everyone looked worse for wear. Even Bath, who typically didn't get involved in anything with any sort of physical component involved.

The water was good, and the heat seemed to radiate into his bones, easing up the aches and pains he'd been carrying with him thanks to his rather unusual gait. It slowly soaked out some of his anxiety about Bath being here at all, and he looked more at ease.

"I keep out of things which seem crazy or dangerous." he said. "And seems my instincts stood me in good stead this time too. What happened?"

@Mima @Toshiful

[Mima]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]"Obelisk nonsense," Sleeping Terror replied quite casually, taking a moment to tip her head and dip each of her horns in the water. Fur or not, they were all lucky it was swampy, otherwise it'd probably be mostly red with blood by now. Bear and kin. "Made everyone want to kill each other. And everything else."

She snorted, closing her eyes as she put some thoughts in her brain for once in her life. "Bet the totoma there didn't even realize anything was wrong. That's just how the mountains are." That was most certainly not how the mountains were. Sleeping Terror was just like that.

@Toshiful @Baneful

[Toshiful]

[imgleft]https://matope-swamp.com/images/phoenix ... uncert.png[/imgleft] "That is an extremely conservative version of events," Bath said. To Deceiver, he said, "I'll tell you. But you mustn't laugh. The sheer cascade of impossibility is quite beyond the pale. I feel like I've come back from a sojourn with the fairies."

Bath looked at Deceiver with consideration.

"I would be amenable to being persuaded to elaborate in faithful detail. For a price, of course. My shoulders are in dire straits. If you could sort them, I'd be rather grateful."

@Baneful @Mima

[Baneful]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]Deceiver had never seen an obelisk and had little concept of what one even was, though he was always a bit reluctant to bring up things he didn't know. The whole making everyone want to kill one another part, now that was actually interesting. That was the kind of power he wanted, the ability to bend minds and bring others under his iron will. That was the sort of thing he'd give up a lot more than a hoof for. "So you all went to the mountains and something made you all angry." he said, summarising.

Bath got a very irritable sort of look for his request, but Deceiver wasn't the sort of kin to let a bit of rankled pride get in the way of greasing the wheels of understanding. If there was something he could glean that might lead him to fantastic power, he was quite happy to pursue whatever he had to.

"I suppose so." he said. "And I sincerely doubt I'll laugh." Deceiver's sense of humour was unusual to say the least.

He moved over to Bath and set his good hoof and the missing one to firmly working out the knots in Bath's muscles, his expression flat and blank as he kept as much distance as possible while doing so.

"Talk. What is an obelisk?" he said.
@Mima

[Mima]

[imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... uncert.png[/imgright]"Obelisk's a big rock," Sleeping Terror offered, as helpful as always, "pretty pointy and shiny, like a crystal but even bigger than a tree." This was roughly how one would describe an obelisk to a lamb who had hit their head a couple too many times. "There's one in the swamp to the south of here."

She'd just popped out of it, after all. She'd better know about the one in the swamp.

"The one here doesn't make you kill each other, though- but it gives you weird dreams." At least, she presumed it was the Obelisk itself that had made it an incessant thorn in her dreamscape. On the journey she'd heard plenty of other kin prattling on about being 'called' by the thing, too. She wasn't sure if she'd say she was 'called' herself so much as 'annoyed into submission with constant ominous dreams about a massive rock and a desire to climb mountains,' but if that was calling to the kin of the swamp... Well, it had called her. "Supposedly the swamp-god talked to the wasp-mare through it and she led us up the mountain."

Sleeping Terror in the back of her mind wondered why their fabled creator needed a bunch of random kin to go up the mountain and fix the damn thing themselves if she was so all-powerful. But she also had the strangest feeling the Kimeti would scold her for thinking so literally. 'it's not that the motherfather couldn't do it herself, she just wanted to test our devotion.' Maybe she was backwards, but she'd be more awed by a display of power than put in her place by a trial.

@Toshiful

[Toshiful]

[imgleft]https://matope-swamp.com/images/phoenix ... uncert.png[/imgleft] Bath listened to Terror's explanation, and inclined his head. "Yes, all that's true. Mm. That's it. You're quite good at this, you know."

Bath seemed to thoroughly be enjoying the massage.

"Some ancient, magic structure. This one had been damaged."

@Baneful @Mima

[Baneful]

Deceiver raised an elegant brow at the description of what an obelisk was.

"I certainly need to have a look at it then." he said and then laughed. "The stranger dreams the better."

Bath caught his attention though.

"Damaged? Curious. Who'd want to hurt a rock?"

@Toshiful @Mima