rattle...what’s that rattle?

[felinemystique]

Characters: Bastet/Yoruichi felinemystique, and OPEN to witnesses/arrivals after the fact
Date/Time: late morning, Monday, August 15, directly after/during this entry.
Location: A remote area of the Park
Rating: PG-13 or so
Summary: Yoruichi has unwisely taunted the Tree and its creator, and so pays the price.
Notes: While I know some people will arrive during

Comments

[witness/locked to Hawk]

[lingeringlegacy]

She is going to die.

Uncourteous as that thought may be, the feeling Stellaris got upon seeing Yoruichi's journal outburst was reminiscent of moments before Grift had died.

She is going to die and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

Or perhaps not. Yoruichi was strong, wasn't she? Stronger than almost anyone in the Sphere, that was what everybody said, especially the Guards who served under her. If anyone stood a chance surviving, or at least surviving longer, after provoking the Tree, it would be her likes, and therein lied the opportunity.

All Stellaris knew about the way the Tree-or Fugue, if they indeed act as one-handled its threats had been from hearsay, some perhaps even from people who had heard it as hearsay. She realised it even more when Huo had asked her, that night in the Scavenger's Yard, in what way Fugue was dangerous. All her answer had been based on Lyle's notes and what older residents had said. That was not enough, as far as information went.

"Hawk!" she called her friend urgently. It was another opportunity that she had been with him when this happened, in the Planetarium after they cleared out the area from unwanted war props. She had just opened the journals while taking a rest when she saw the worrisome conversation. "Do you think you can be fast enough? Captain Yoruichi... she's in danger."

She did not know if whatever they could do could save Yoruichi. But if they could at least derive information from it...

Sorry for all the edits! This is Typo City and I AM THE MAYOR this morning

[crimson_seeker]

Strictly speaking, Hawk would not have had the time. As a Watchman and Guard, and one of the few who could speak to everyone unimpeded, he was in demand whenever he wasn't sleeping, it seemed. However, he was a soft touch when it came to Stellaris and the Planetarium was the apple of her eye, so in the end there had hardly been a question about stealing an hour or two from his rest to lend a hand.

He came over at a half-run, peering past her at the conversation splayed across the page of the journal. "That has an ill sound. And it's not like the Captain, but..." She was a force to be reckoned with. Even she might not escape rattling the Tree without consequence.

And Stellaris wanted him to transform and go after her. Now was not the time to divulge his doubts of late about the dragon gem and how it was faring, so to speak. Even if he could hold the shape, he'd be in no condition to fight in it. "I know someone who can be fast enough," he said. "Though... if she's riled up the Tree, I'm not sure what can save her at this point." It was a grim truth, if one all of them recognised.

[lingeringlegacy]

"Neither am I, but... well I know it's easy for me to say, as I don't have the power to help either way, but trying is better than waiting in dread." Her eyes were on him, wavering between insistence and worry that she had imposed too much. Yet had she known what had befallen him recently, she wouldn't have asked him this freely. "And how the Tree acts... whether it had blind spots or weaknesses... that knowledge disappears too often with people."

[crimson_seeker]

There was an untold story between them, one Hawk would have to tell soon enough. He hadn't wanted to weigh this brief encounter with his concerns, however. He nodded shortly to her words.

"You want to observe. That, I can do something about." He glanced about, searching the roof and the nearby trees for a small form he knew was not far away. "Fuu!"

With a warbling noise, the dragon familiar slithered off the sun-warmed roof of the Planetarium and floated down to the two of them.

"Captain Yoruichi," Hawk said, speaking clearly. The little dragon was far smarter than he liked to make people think, but Hawk couldn't afford him mistaking his captain for someone else right now. "She's somewhere here. She's fighting." She will never go down without resistance. "Find her, see what happens to her, and come back here soon as you can. Understand?"

Chirping in affirmation, Fuu shot off into the sky above the islands, such as it was. Hawk glanced back at Stellaris. "Afraid that's the best I can do right now. He flies faster than I would, though."

[lingeringlegacy]

"Thank you, Fuu!" She blurted out right before Fuu flew away. Would he understand her? She spoke to Shizuko once in a while, but she didn't think it understood. Whatever merit the habit returned was probably purely psychological. On the other hand, the little dragon's eyes seemed to show comprehension when Hawk relayed his order.

And now they would wait. Stellaris crossed her arms in front of her body and turned to Hawk, a nervous half-smile on her face. "That's more than what I can do. Thank you, Hawk." Let's just hope it is not for naught.

[crimson_seeker]

"Thank me if he can find her in time," Hawk said, somewhat glumly. The answering smile he slanted at her was lop-sided and short-lived. "His eyes are very sharp, that much I know. But if she's in the lower levels, then he probably can't reach her in time."

More to distract himself, he headed back to the entrance of the planetarium, still partway covered by bags of sand. He wasn't quite sure what the practical point of obstructing entryways with junk was: it wasn't as if Captain Planet had proper streets that could be easily barricaded. You'd get past such blocks simply by stepping into the woods for a while. The work would serve to keep him from pacing while they waited.

It wasn't very long before Fuu reappeared, already chittering off his report as he swung down towards the two of them. Hawk dropped to sit on a stray crate and held out his arm, letting the dragon scrabble up to his shoulder.

"She's still alive!" The relief was evident in his voice as he called out to Stellaris over Fuu's warbling. "But she was attacked by trees, he says. Roots? No. Branches then. Sorry, he's a bit excitable."

[lingeringlegacy]

For a moment, Stellaris sat on one of the lower piles of sandbag, flipping her journal to the page in concern. Yoruichi had stopped writing, and so had the rest. She traced the part saying the Irishman with a finger. It wasn't difficult to connect the dots, what with Lyle's strong reaction and her own notes regarding comrades who had come and gone listed so many names in Lockon's row. His latest appearance even barely lasted two weeks.

Competition?

She did not know, had never pried, what the nature of Yoruichi's relationship with Lockon's previous incarnations were. Yet since the beginning of her days as Stellaris, she had never gotten the expression Aim was particularly close to Bastet. Thinking of the common worry every time someone got reborn, that the person would get a memory reset, Stellaris wondered if that was the case.

And how sad that was. For them, certainly, but also for Fugue, if indeed he controlled all of Edensphere. They said all those trouble manifested because the old man was lonely, and yet he withdrew from people, dodged questions about himself, never seemed to fully participate in activities people organized.

Stellaris lifted her face to see that Hawk had started working again. She closed her journal, got up and followed suit, if less talkative than before.

Fuu's reappearance got her heart racing. She skipped to where Hawk sat, listening to the noises the little dragon made before conceding that she probably would never be able to decipher his 'speech'. Fortunately, Hawk soon relayed the not-so-bad news.

"Oh that's wonderful." She exhaled. "But... trees? Does he mean the majestic one where the houses are?"

[crimson_seeker]

Hawk shook his head. "No, she's... not that far from here, right?" Fuu chirped in affirmation. "On the same island. And Fuu says there are others there with her now, though he doesn't know them. He's a bit bad with faces, m'fraid." He sat bowed towards the little dragon for a moment more, speaking to him in a quiet voice.

"Ordinary branches, but they came up from the ground and tried to trap her." He bit his lip. "That's not... the first time someone's died by being pulled down by tree roots or branches, Stellaris. Might be the first time someone's survived that that I can remember."

[lingeringlegacy]

"Others... helping her, presumably?" Stellaris asked hopefully. The Captain was well-liked, of course people would help her, people with relevant abilities most likely, to be able to reach her so timely. "That's a relief, then. Muchly so."

She exhaled and nodded, looking less tense now. "Yes. Grift, at least, but that was near the main trunk." His autopsy records had detailed the wounds and site of his death. Her next words came almost a hiss. "Conscious or not, that's vile."

[crimson_seeker]

Fuu gave another stream of noises at Stellaris's question, and Hawk huffed as if a little put upon. "Yeah, you little nuisance, I gathered they were people. How about you work on describing them for me?" The dragon chittered with evident displeasure, but continued then.

"He says they were beating back the branches, and one of them held her... Not sure how wise that is, when she's hurt, but that still fits under help rather than harm.

"Grift? Old bartender, right? Died with quite a bit of noise, in the winter?" Hawk frowned, fishing after memories that had by now sunk quite deep. Souji had wanted Orca dead over this particular killing by the Tree. "Conscious? You mean... You mean the culprit. The one who sent the branches to attack her."

[lingeringlegacy]

It was so weird to see Hawk talk as though one-way to Fuu. Handy, but still novel in her eyes. Like when Philosopher communicated with Beep.

"We'll hear about her soon I suppose. If not, I'll stop by at the Clinic on the way home. Lyle would want to visit her in any case." She crossed her arms again. The volume of her voice dropped. "Yes, the old bartender. He was- ...It is not recommended to speak of that here."

[crimson_seeker]

"He's saying something about a man in a green headdress, and a red-haired girl... And... right. Lin is there. Bastet's right hand, if you remember her?" Hawk cleared his throat a little.

Stellaris was much more aware of what went on in the night side of Edensphere than Hawk himself had been, especially back when Grift had died. Still, he knew a reason for caution when it stared him in the face.

"Mm-hm. We can find a safer place if you wish. I don't think Captain Planet is it, especially right now. Something's astir."

[lingeringlegacy]

"The second in command. Yes, I know of her." The ill-tempered, though nonetheless a professional, woman. She respected Captain Yoruichi, as far as Stellaris could tell. Probably more, even. That was yet another reason to believe Yoruichi would be alright. Quadruple Tree-murders was something she had not heard of. On the other hand, apparently her mutters had shifted the conversation to a different direction.

"Meet me at the Access Point tomorrow afternoon... or whenever you're free. I know the Guards are in high demand these days." Where after that, though? The safety of the Scavenger's yard was in question after they got wind of the card with the curious floor plan. But whoever distributed that card might be luring people too.

[crimson_seeker]

"Third in command, but don't let her hear I corrected you." Hawk smiled a little, a wry sort of expression. You learned to put up with Lin, and once you worked out what her sore spots were, she was frightfully disciplined and competent. The Guard would have run much less smoothly without her.

"I'll let you know when the situation eases," he said. "Can't promise I'll know when it is. I'm already patrolling for criminals and newborns, and now we've got exploding puppets and suddenly appearing underground shelters on top of that.

"But the Captain is in good hands, so shall we finish here?" After this scare, he'd be almost glad to tire himself out with the work and then simply go home and sleep.

[lingeringlegacy]

"Ah," Stellaris placed her fingertips over her mouth, "yes, third. You're right." It was easy to forget, she thought. Bell was the second, but when it came to acting authoritative, Lin was the more apparent.

She nodded. "You have your responsibility. Even now, I'm grateful you're able to take time to help me."

/closes this thread

[crimson_seeker]

He gave a quick shake of his head. "Don't mention it. Let's just get this done."