The Big Bad Tree (Finale: Part II) WHO: All 10 Chosen WHEN: May 17 WHERE: Central Park SUMMARY: With all the Chosen awake, it's time to do some gardening. CW: Mild fantasy violence.
The roots split the ground, coming to the surface, undulating and twisting in the air...
And Faihan is overcome with an uncontrollable need: “Time to get to the ROOT of the problem.” He chuckles to himself.
Aslan stares, deadpan...and then shakes his head, grabbing a flask with—he hopes—some kind of paralyzing potion. He really does.
Jomana readies her weapon, but does not make the first move.
Juliet, on the other hand, does a flip into the air and swipes her big blade at the flailing roots.
The largest root twists and changes, becoming an open maw with large, sharp, and jagged teeth.
Mid-air, Juliet's blade arcs wide. She lets out a squawk at the sight of the teeth, but follows through on the swing regardless. She take just half a moment to change trajectory and bring the blade toward the opening maw. But her blade only manages to, literally, chip a piece of wood.
Juliet grunts upon landing, a sort of scowl on her face. Disappointed, annoyed—anticlimactic. If she'd wanted to whittle sailboats, she would've stayed home.
Faihan finally stops being amused with his terrible joke. Or rather, he’d stopped being amused when the root suddenly smiles for the camera, all teeth… (He hopes Eli isn’t going to start singing “Little Shop of Horrors.” Dad jokes are one thing. Dad jokes set to a musical soundtrack quite another.)
Speaking of singing, that’s what he’s supposed to be doing, and so he quickly begins singing “Spring Storm”—summoning a burst of blue-hued air to attack the roots.
Ew.
This is unfortunate but not surprising. Luckily, Wren no longer has to run into the fray with a bat since she has a nice, handy gun right here that she can shoot and aim from a distance.
Not that she knows what to aim for, consider it's a tree root. With teeth. Theoretically a throat? Might as well!
The root screams as it's cut from the tree, the terrible sound ringing in everyone's ears.
"You know, I was a lumberjack for Halloween last year..." Faihan remarks, pleased with their success.
The severed 'head' writhes and thrashes about, carelessly tossing itself at Juliet. It just misses her, flopping over her and aiming its snapping jaws at Alejo. Alejo manages to parry the brunt of the bite with his shield, but he's smacked off to the side, rolling on the floor before he gets up again.
This time, he does not attempt violent retaliation against the root. This time.
Hmmmmm. Wren eyes the other roots, who haven't sprouted weird heads yet, and the one on the floor, which is still flailing danger to...someone. Probably not her, unless it can spit fire or other magic in her direction.
So, probably safe to shoot it again and see if she can put it out of its misery for real.
The bullets pierce most of the root's teeth, but it continues to move, even as a lesser threat...
Juliet growls, dodge rolls (for the visual), and jumps back into action, this time firing off a shot in retaliation into the general tangle of roots. With a single shot, she exterminates six of the smaller roots. "Hell yeah..."
Alejo attacks the severed root with his sword, and as the sword sinks deep into it, the beaten and weakened root is shatters into particles that burst into the air and fade to nothing.