[Open] 🚬 November Flames

[burnitblack]

Who: Dabi & others
What: November Catch-All
When: November
Where: Various

Content Warnings: Potential mentions of domestic/child abuse, potential mentions of murder, violence, adult language/subjects

Notes: General and specific starters and event prompts are found below. Contact under cut.

If you want to hit me up for ideas on prompts or plots, feel free to comment on Dabi's CR meme post or his Event plotting post, hit me up on my contacts – Plurk (StarSeed69) / Discord (StarSeed#3572) – shoot me a PM, or drop an ooc comment down below, and we’ll hash it out. I'm down to write a unique starter for our threads if you prefer.

Comments

[whowillmourn]

Despite the danger, the distance from Trench, and the dependence on the people reliant on him in the moment, Mayerling smiles as he continues their flight in the direction Never Mind gave them. What pleasure to fly free in the night, to swoop upward and save them all in the moment without spilling a drop of blood. He hears the talk, but that too is music to his ears. Weirdness and wonder.

Focusing on the land beyond their immediate group, Mayerling focuses his hearing and sense of smell on the ground blocked by trees. There's no sign the beasts follow them particularly. He flies until he can sense them no longer and some besides.

Quietly, he directs his voice down to the others. "Does anyone detects any immediate dangers below?" Mayerling asks. Far be it from him to assume they lack their own unique gifts.

[burnitblack]

Dabi's left hanging, opting not to fly for now in order to conserve his flames for later. Besides, he's not arguing if someone else wants to do the work. The sight of the forest stretching out below brings back memories of those kids and their little training camp. When the villains attacked and he set plenty of the mountain woods on fire. It's always interesting to see how people react when confronted with that blazing heat...

Mayerling's question gets a few murmurs before one member waves a hand. "None directly below. But it's wet down there." Indeed, if there's sharp enough eyes, they'll notice the gleam of moonlight sparkling between the trees. Either an overflowed river or a swap area, water consuming the tree roots and rocks below.

"Oy." Dabi points to the east. "There's an outcropping." It's a small mountain, but should be a decent place to set down for a bit and get their surroundings. Hell if he knows where the mushroom is thanks to this flight.

[whowillmourn]

As strong as Greater Nobles are, as much as Mayerling has dealt with water out of need, he too would rather avoid a soggy domain. The last thing he needs is to be sucked into the muck or washed away while asleep in his coffin come daybreak.

"Far better," Mayerling comments about the elevated outcropping. He carries them in that direction steadily, neither rushing nor dallying. Whatever roads this wild land had are long gone, but good dry land, even without constructed shelter, has its value. Better the safe spot in hand than to push their luck too close to dawn.

With greater care for his passengers, Mayerling coasts in to land, nearly halting in the air when only a foot off the ground. Then he beats his wings once backward to keep in place and set the coffin on dry ground. A moment later he stands next to it, his booted feet once more no more remarkable than their craftsmanship calls for.

"We flew roughly the direction we needed to," Mayerling informs them, "A mile south of the track we were on when the beast found us and farther west." All in all, not bad for an evening's flight.

He pauses, aware as ever that he is the reason they cannot travel much by day on foot. "This may be the best place to spend the day," Mayerling notes. As everyone else must, by necessity, live on his schedule, they too need rest.

[burnitblack]

And who the hell knows what might be swimming around in there with sharp teeth or suction discs ready to feast on their blood the second they touch down in the bog. Dabi's aiming for the outcrop no matter if he's going there alone or with the group.

Luckily the group decides to come along. Holding on is relatively easy, though his hand's starting to tire from the continued cling. It isn't like the coffin has handholds dangling from all sides. But the plateau they're headed for offers a fine place to land and disembark from their makeshift hovering platform.

Dabi drops off the coffin once they're close to the rocky spread, igniting some flames from his feet to carry him the rest of the way to the ground. Already there by the time Mayerling sets his coffin and its passengers down. Leaning against the wall and looking like he's been waiting for some time.

"The route looks like it continues there." The villain points out towards the forest, indicating a small clearing of it that seems to harbor some kind of open, winding route. Not a road, but some sort of natural walkway. "If we keep going this direction, we should reach the area the mushroom's in." The legend describes it as a "glen" but considering the nature and look of these woods, Dabi isn't expecting anything less than gnarled tree roots interconnecting with each other and weed-choked grasses beneath fog-laded overhanging boughs. In other words, shit territory.

[whowillmourn]

The revelation another member of the party can fly is interesting, but should the method always be so flashy, Mayerling appreciates Dabi not acting as a guiding star for beasts to continue to hunt them. He could fly longer, but Mayerling would rather carry only his coffin, not everyone else along with it.

His cloak curls around the coffin to clasp it like the world's most unwieldy backpack. It exceeds Mayerling's head as it is built to contain him. His internal clock keeps him tuned to the promise of the sun. Luckily, they are in the cold seasons when the days are short and nights are long.

"Hmmm," Mayerling eyes the distance, "At our average pace, we could get a little over halfway there before I must rest." His timing isn't optional. It's a hard limit, and they will witness the flames if it gets pushed.

Very well. He takes the lead, listening and smelling the environs around them, to make some of the distance up.

[burnitblack]

That's why he doesn't fly too often during the night when he's out in the woods. There's another reason as well, but that'll be a private thing until it's made known another time. Dabi doesn't blame the guy for not wanting to carry the rest of the group either. He was far less a team player than Mayerling, so the other group members are lucky.

Dabi's finding the other man's transformations to be extremely interesting. It looks like he can change his entire body, clothing included, into whatever tool or structure he needs for the job at hand. Clawed feet for carrying the coffin, his cloak now turning into clasps, and the weapons previously during the battle. Is he made of organic metal or something?

"Or we rest here until you're ready to go again..." That's half the reason Dabi even pointed out this outcropping. So they wouldn't need to guard the sleeping vampire (and carry him) while walking through the thick of the woods.

But Mayerling takes the lead again and Dabi rolls his eyes in annoyance. There went his brilliant logic...

[whowillmourn]

Though the coffin stands between them, when Mayerling turns his head toward the back, he stares with focus and looks through the material toward the man rolling his eyes. Yes, working with Mayerling comes at a cost; he's no dhampir to toil in day or night until sun sickness takes them. Such an easy handling of the beasts, risking none of their lives, surely makes up for it.

"The sooner we collect the mushrooms, the sooner we'll be back," Mayerling replies. In a dangerous multiday journey, every hour counts. He knows that too well in his long life.

[burnitblack]

Not the first time someone's looked at him rolling his eyes. Then again, as far as Dabi knows, Mayerling's not a telepath and he hadn't exactly voiced the ulterior motive for landing on the ledge. Even though the villain figured the implication should've been pretty clear considering the context of the spot.

The reminder earns the vampire a lazy shrug before Dabi sets his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, yeah. I know." He's following rather than standing his ground, right? Though taking the rear isn't his usual fashion, it's helpful in this case to keep some powerful Sleepers in the back and avoid any surprises wanting to pick off the "weaker" side.

[whowillmourn]

Mayerling does not mind the risks to his well being, but he would prefer not to extend the risks to the others, not on his behalf. He looks ahead, far into the forest. For now, all is quiet.

They're a team, and they're too far out to have reason to betray him. They'll be back in blood drenched Trench soon enough. As much pollution as may be out here, there's only a handful of people he's with. It's far easier.

[burnitblack]

Leaving behind the outcropping takes them downhill, soon enough dumping them back into the forest. Luckily they left the swampy area well behind them during the flight, so there's no risk of getting boots stuck in the muck or falling face first into some aquatic danger. But the roots threaten to trip them up and the path, while open, isn't good footing.

Silence around them should be a good sign, but Dabi feels more anxious towards it. Not knowing something's out there is a little worse than knowing something is. Considering how fast the previous creatures had been, he's expecting a sudden dash from the darkness on either side.

How long a walk till they find this damn hollow tree...