Yuuki almost gets eaten by a tree WHO: Yuuki, Eli, Juliet, & Mabel WHEN: October 10, Late Night WHERE: The Park SUMMARY: Yuuki is having a strange time at Santi’s birthday party. The Chosen of Fire returns.
Yuuki was never sure he'd get over the awkwardness of going to parties or gatherings he had no personal investment in but had to go for Appearances. Or networking; his NY friends were often adamant they had to go to everything just in case they ran into someone important or useful.
The most important person here he was aware of was his mother and. Yeah. Yuuki sighed as he walked along a park path near where the party was still going, trying to clear his mind.
Wear the assumptions of others like a shield. Easier said than done.
Maybe everyone was messed up in the head, and Yuuki wasn't broken. He wanted to believe that … but at the same time, it was from the one person who had grown up as he had. He loved Itsuki, the only member of his entire family worth anything, but. When he left, they'd go back to before, and he'd lose this as well.
Maybe deciding not to run away from Rahul wasn't a mistake that would rip his heart in half again. Even though he didn't understand why he was interested still, again, whichever it was, even though he still didn't see what Rahul saw in him in the first place. Money? Access? He was going to be disappointed. Well. Not with the money.
Maybe coming here wasn't a mistake, even if it felt like one, deep in his bones.
From atop a tree, loud chirping and meowing called out to Yuuki, as if it were trying to draw him back to reality, a reality full of danger, perhaps, as glittering specks gather around the young man.
Yuuki blinked as he was brought into awareness things existed outside of his head, and one of those things was a cat. "How'd you get up there? I don't think we can easily call a fireman to get you out," he called out, looking up through the branches to see if he could see the cat.
It took him a bit longer to notice there was something ... weird about the air. Glitter? How did glitter get here?
The cat gets louder, but only a pair of bright blue eyes can be seen in the shadows.
The specks begin to group together, shifting.
"Do you need help? Maybe I can climb the tree, but I don't think you'll appreciate being held as I try to climb down again." Siamese, maybe? They usually had blue eyes.
The black cat hissed and bristled up. It was of no use; the specks coalesced into something solid, a giant hand reaching out to grab Yuuki...
Mabel was sitting with Eli and Juliet. She'd been a little surprised that Eli had asked her for a reading on romance, but since that was her favorite kind of reading, she had readily applied herself to the task. Having drawn the Four of Swords (reversed), Three of Wands, and Queen of Wands, she was explaining how these cards described his past present and future when a shiba inu without a collar suddenly appeared, coming up to them and whimpering. Mabel stopped her reading there, turning to the dog and wondering if it was whimpering because it wanted something to eat. Eli made a joke about the dog wanting a reading next, but reached into his pocket to see if he had any food to offer the dog. The dog moved closer to Eli, barking and wagging its tail.
"Maybe he just wants attention?" Eli reached out to give it a pet on the head.
Mabel stood, thinking the dog probably had come over because it smelled BBQ and wanted meat. She asked Juliet if she wanted to come with while Eli entertained the dog. Juliet agreed, although reluctantly. She, too, stood, and began rooting through her bag to see if she had any snacks in the meantime. But then the dog suddenly perked up and barked at Eli. It moved backwards and towards the thick of the park. It wouldn't stop barking, not until everyone got up to follow it.
"Timmy fall down a well, boy?" Eli smirked as he got to his feet. "Maybe someone is in trouble..." He began to follow. "You guys coming?"
Juliet snorted at Eli's joke, but followed. "Like I'm letting you go anywhere alone with Mystery Lassie."
Mabel closed her eyes, breathing in. "I sense spirits among us," she said in her best crackly, witchy voice. She readied her camera and hurried after the others.
They followed the shiba inu...straight to Yuuki and what appeared to be the angriest Ent to appear to the eyes of men. Possibly the first actual Ent to appear to the eyes of men, too. It was a fully formed beast—a tree with arms and legs. The dog growled and barked at the tree monster and then dashed away.
Mabel stared in complete, slack-jawed shock.
"Not. AGAIN!" Eli shouted. "Shit. What happened last time..." He thought for a moment, then shouted again, "MYSTERIOUS DUDE! Where are you-." He looked over to Mabel and Juliet then back at Yuuki and swore.
Juliet did not hesitate, but immediately looked around for something to bludgeon with, but at Eli's shout, she paused and looked at him confused. "Mysterious Dude?"
Eli idly gestured, "Don't have time to exp- Yuuki! Can you ... reach for me?"
Up in the tree, Yuuki was struggling, but it was no use. The beast's grip was too tight, and his struggles only caused the monster to lift him higher.
Mabel finally pulled it together, finding a lighter in her bag and brandishing it at the tree. "Put him down, or I'll make your friends into kindling!" The tree monster only stared at the flame, uncomprehending.
Eli fell back on what worked for him before: throwing a rock. The rock hit the tree just right, and its brittle fingers snapped, dropping Yuuki...but from way up. He tried to fall without breaking anything, to bounce off the monster so that he would roll to the ground instead of dropping, but his angle was off...
Juliet, meanwhile, was smacking the tree with a stick...which Mabel was (unsuccessfully) trying to light on fire. The stick did little to the monster, however, snapping against its trunk, and then it was growling at her, shooting out a vine from the broken hand to wrap around her leg.
Eli yelled to distract it, running for Yuuki. Luckily, he got there in time, and Yuuki suffered no damaged worse than scratches. The two hit the ground, tangled together for the moment.
While Eli assisted Yuuki, Mabel turned her attentions to rescuing Juliet and began jumping at the tree, trying to snap off more branches to get its attention. The tree, annoyed by this, made a grab for her, but the vine that had been chasing Juliet passed over her head.
Just then, the shiba inu returned, placing itself beside the Yuuki-Eli tangle. There was something in its mouth. Eli reached for it, thinking it might be another rock. It was some kind of translucent stone... The dog readily let Eli take the stone from its mouth. It was a strange red stone with a funny symbol on it. The moment Eli touched it, years and years of sword training rushed back to him—an overwhelming deluge that overcame him for the moment.
Yuuki, freeing himself from the tangle, made for a nice normal tree to shield himself, glancing at the dog with confusion and then thinking of the cat.
Snapping its limbs did seem to annoy it, because the tree was now focused on Mabel, grabbing at her with its own broken arm. She tried to run, but failed, scooped right up into the air. Immediately, she felt overcome by a strange feeling, like the monster was draining her of something. She wasn't sure what...only that she suddenly felt tired and couldn't escape on her own. Not sure what she should do, she tried to remain calm and protect her camera. Juliet ran at the tree, jumping up and grabbing onto the limb holding Mabel. She clung to the branch next to her friend.
From behind his tree, Yuuki noticed that the tree monster was not as solid as it initially seemed, that there was a hollowed out point on the arm holding Mabel. He called out to the others, pointing out the vulnerability. Juliet climbed higher, trying to reach the weak point. She aimed a punch, and the arm snapped, dropping Mabel. Mabel did her best impression of the girl from Karate Kid III, falling to the ground with surprisingly little damage. But the tree wasn't done yet. From the broken arm, several vines shot out, taking the shape of a hand.
"Watch outtttttttt!" Mabel cried as she hit the ground.
Yuuki, relieved for half a second, found that relief fleeting and wisely remained behind his tree shield. He studied the tree, trying to find other vulnerabilities, but found nothing now.
Juliet grabbed for the vines, determined to stop this tree monster from getting at Mabel for a second time. She swung like Tarzan, using the full weight of her 5'3" frame to yank the vine-arm, burning her palms on the way down. As she released and began to fall, she looked back to see the vines ripped from the tree and whispered to herself, "Metal." The vines spluttered with sap and then dispersed into glowing specks, disappearing.
During all this, a strange, muffled voice was whispering to Eli, repeating, "Remember..." over and over. An epiphany had come over him: the memory of how to use his job stone... And as he returned to himself, he found that his outfit had changed entirely to match Kyoujiro's battle gear, his trusty sword at his side. He could remember every technique Kyo had learned and the skills bestowed upon him by the Fire Crystal. Eli didn't have time to wonder what was going on. He knew what he had to do. Fire never stopped and thought before it burned, after all. The sword he pulled from his sheath felt familiar even though he had never swung it before in his life. And with this sudden knowledge, he willed fire to encase the blade, like he was Mabel earlier flicking on the lighter. He swung downward, and like butter, the evil tree was no more.
The tree monster recoiled, growling and groaning in pain as it came apart into glowing specks, disappearing—along with every other trace of combat—from the scene.
From the ground, gazing up at him in awe, Mabel shouted, "Damn, Elias."