❪ event ❫ spirited away

[natha]

PRELUDE     I'll get straight to the point, Thesaens. Dranbu is in dire need of assistance. I have received confirmation that the disappearances we were investigating last month have... escalated. Be cautious as you make your way through Josa Forest. Ideally we could go straight through, but it seems the main entrance to Dranbu is overgrown with thorns and vines, and there's a bit of a glitch with the rail system - the train is having trouble recognizing the Dranbu station as a destination. I've uploaded a homing beacon to your devices with this message. Once enough of you have arrived in Dranbu proper, it should communicate with the train and register it as a stop. With any luck, that will make getting back and forth much easier for you all from now on. Best of luck. Entry to the forest is not only overgrown with vegetation, but seems to be growing at an increasingly alarming rate. Any attempts to clear the vines will be met with even larger ones growing in its place, and it only confirms Nurray's findings as true. The only way in is across the sound from Nadril, entering the forest from its snowy back yard. It doesn't stay cold for long; as one ventures further into the forest, the snow will disappear, as though it was completely out of place in the first place. The red sun's warmth will take its place soon after— and before long, you'll feel too warm for the clothes you came with. That's when you know you've entered the heart of Josa Forest. WITHIN THE FOREST     The forest seems to be thick with a profound presence that can’t be ascertained. While venturing through it, one will feel like there are being watched or followed. This feeling will only intensify as metallic-scented drops of rain begin to fall between the clearings in the trees. Unfortunately, what many don’t realize at this point is that this is how the forest itself eats. How it subsists and lives through the minds of those who eventually get lost in it. Wandering this far in is akin to walking into a lion’s jaw, or rather… straight to its stomach. But, the forest has a way of making one stay. While it swallows someone up, it shows them sinfully beautiful and picturesque sights. Even showing them people or things that are familiar to the lost. All of which will urge them to go in deeper and deeper. But, while the forest begins to prey on the mind of their victim— they will suddenly hear an elegant and alluring voice urging them back. This voice promises them comfort and safety. Promises to be kind and open. Promises she has a place for them where they will never feel displaced or unwanted, or lost. Before they can fully accept, they will find that they are whisked away in Barthala’s embrace. Some will be taken, wiped of all their previous memories and inserted new ones. Others will find they have no prior memories at all of themselves, only urged to go on with regular life. What is prevalent is the forest's desire to turn you. Metamorphosis is a phenomenon that occurs only to certain individuals, and there is no rhyme or reason to them. Some adventurers would find themselves changing by the minute, the hour, or the process may even take days and weeks. The forest toys with you, but it only wants to draw you closer to its core — as though there's a story there it wants you to see and understand. Will you go on anyway, knowing the forest has already has its claws on you? I. ALL ROADS LEAD TO — Exploring the forest is not a perilous experience - Barthala's blessing ensures that paths remain clear of any dangerous obstacles, and keeps anyone who enters the woods from losing their way. However, it will not always lead adventurers where they want to go. Stressed? Your path leads to a meadow, grass drifting gently in the breeze. Tired? You'll find your way to a tree with roots perfectly curved for a nap, the shade a peaceful retreat from the sunlight. The hungry will find streams full of fish or bushes laden with berries, and the curious will come upon elder trees, unique and beautiful. Only those who are truly satisfied with their circumstances, with themselves, can forge their own path, and venture to Barthala's Grotto. II. BARTHALA'S GROTTO — The deity's home is host to an abundance of life. Butterflies drift through the air, brilliantly colored and unbothered by any intruders. Foliage blooms in a rainbow of colors, many plants unique to this area alone. With trees arranged to provide a canopy over the path and small clearing, the scene is something out of a fantasy. Any plant life taken from this area will not survive long, though even in its dead, dried state, it retains a curious beauty. Explorers and creatures finding themselves in this area will suddenly find their clothing to be an unnecessary burden - what could be better than feeling the wonders of nature against bare skin? There is nothing unbecoming about such a natural state, any perverse inclinations are an aspect of personal preference. While the presence of Barthala can be felt here - a warm, comfortable sensation emanating from your core - she is nowhere to be found. Only one will have the opportunity to pass under a veil of willow branches and emerge to the cool air of a clear-as-glass spring. Another nearby grotto is home to a plant with intoxicating effects. Just smelling the leaves is enough to entice most animals, and consuming them has effects on both mind and body. More easily amused, with thoughts that weave deep and distant, along with increased sensory perception can bring the user on a pleasant trip lasting up to five hours. III. INFLUENCES — (18+) Every five days, a weed scattered in patches among the forest underbrush blooms. The flowers are small and white, unremarkable except for how clustered they grow. When their petals fall, after only hours of blossoming, pollen drifts through the air. It clings to clothing, to hair, in the throats of the sensitive animals dwelling in the forest. Even those unaltered by Barthala's magic can be affected. The locals of Dranbu claim the pollen enhances fertility, but in practice, it simply serves as a poignant aphrodisiac. Those affected won't differentiate between the warmth of another or their own, a simple need to experience sexual ecstasy overwhelmingly pervaded. The pollen loses its potency after about three hours, leaving behind only a sweet smell. YOUR NEW (NEW) LIFE    Adapting to an entirely new setting isn’t always so simple. People often say that assimilating oneself to the environment happens fluidly, and before you know it, you’re a part of it. In Dranbu, these words hold an uncanny sense of truth. When you awake, your day begins like it always has. Your daily routine meets largely unchanged, except a few tinier details. Perhaps, you’ve realized your true calling is an occupation within the villages itself. Maybe in farming up strange medical herbs, maybe in acting as a witch doctor for the people, or maybe you find yourself drawn to the arts and you really enjoy sculpting fellow villagers in the nude. Once you commit these tasks, you realize, it feels like what you’ve always done. As if it were natural, as if you’ve done them for years, and maybe you have? At least that’s what your gut is telling you, and slowly your memories will too. At the end of the day, when you return home, you realize you’re not alone. You have a partner who shares the same values and whom you love deeply. Or maybe a spouse whom you’re always arguing with. But, even that will feel as commonplace as the rest of your day. All you know is that the day that might have started off not being yours is entirely yours and yours alone. IV. THE HUNT — Those taken by the forest, animal features adorning their bodies, will find that their palates have changed as well. Carnivores crave raw meat, while herbivores don't mind snacking on a patch of grass or pulling leaves from branches. For most, there's no reason to cook a meal; once prey is captured, instinct says dig right in! It can be a gruesome sight, mangled bodies gorged upon leaving bloodstained faces, but it's natural. As is the hunt itself - any size of game can be found in the forest, and no one will go hungry for long. The magic that dwells here ensures a catch even for the clumsiest predator. Just take care not to stalk one of your own. For a hungry predator, there's no difference between a deer and a deer-like human. THE BOUNDARIES BEYOND     For some, placated is synonymous with bored. While there is a sense of wonder in the beauties of nature that adorn the woods, serene forest life isn't for everyone. Those seeking more adventure can explore the challenging slopes of Waco Mountain. Barthala's influence is weaker on those bluffs than in Josa Forest itself, so thrill chasers won't be disappointed. Lose the path, slip on loose rocks, fall into a stream and spend a night wet and cold, there are many perils that come with traveling a mountain-side. Scattered ruins offer some shelter, their walls carved with images resembling Barthala, a dragon, and three other stranger creatures. While the deity's pacification does not flow as deeply through this region, all are still save from mortal wounds, and the veil cast over their memories will not lessen. If you have made it this far, however, there is no reason to try to return to the main city of Dranbu. Accommodations are always available in the neighboring villages: Phares in the north, and Stroln in the south. These villages are in friendly competition with one another, and will tempt travelers with women and men of their kind in order to draw in business to their hotels. FINAL OOC NOTES     No REP is available for this log. REP will now be primarily available through achieving NPC quests, which will be available on the 19th! Please keep an eye out for that! Dranbu is entirely available for exploration! You may find that most of Wyver and Olympia Flora/Fauna may be found in the forest as well. For more information on your characters' (opt-in) Metamorphosis, please refer to the November Outline! QUICK NAV premise ● faq ● lore ● map ● npcs ● bestiary taken ● atp/emp ● application ● rep/acp ● quest bulletin calendar ● hiatus/drops ● modbox [ FULL NAVIGATION ] elnysa nysalogs nysaisles nysaooc elnyan

Comments

[motivation]

Hi.

[ fortunately for both of them, probably, dutch has little shame when it comes to this sort of thing. fortunately for both of them, they both remember what it feels like to kiss until their heads swim, until alcohol and lips and wandering hands are all they know, something heavy and heated and utterly intoxicating. it's on dutch's mind as much as it is on his and it makes her lips curl into a smile that's a little predatory, but mostly just tinged with want and heat and need.

hi is all she says, any response to his come here often? pre-empted when she closes the distance between them, crowding him back against the tree with her body and kissing him. the invasion of his space is easy, immediate and unthinking, her hands finding skin where his trousers hang low on his hips and his shirt's risen up. she starts there and slides them up his stomach, moaning into the kiss because she needed this, needs this, to touch and be touched.

it isn't nearly enough, but it's something. a start. ]

[stuns]

[ he welcomes her into his space more than he's welcomed most here almost immediately. there's a desperation in how he pulls her close with one hand, bypassing any edge of clothing to find skin underneath, to touch because his palms are burning and itching for some kind of satisfaction and pulling dutch in closer is the solution to it.

fingers slide up the line of her back as he draws her in, hips flush and moving just slightly as he kisses her back. kissing dutch is like dropping eight stories, but in the best way, a free fall that doesn't hurt, it just makes you wish you could keep falling. mid-kiss, he rucks up her shirt just a little more, because skin to skin to skin is exactly what he needs and wants in this moment, palm splaying upwards over her spine, trying to help. ]

Off - [ half murmured against her mouth, punctuated with a kiss that lingers along the side of her mouth. ] - now.

[motivation]

[ he welcomes her into his space, pulling her close and bringing their hips flush together. dutch makes an encouraging noise at that into the kiss, spreading her legs and shifting her weight so that the hard outline of him is pressed more firmly between her legs, very nearly at the centre of her except for the clothing they're both still wearing. it means the next shift of his hips brings friction in just the right place, sending pleasure up and down her nervous system. ]

Mh— [ that's both confirmation and a swallowed moan at the sensation, her hands scrambling to pull his shirt up, to get it out of the way. ]

[stuns]

[ out of the way is the first step - off is the second, which means that he'll help her for half a second and drop it somewhere on the ground. everything here feels fever hot, and dutch may help with the way she presses against him, but she seems to make it worse. it's the kind of worse that juno will take for all its got, because it's feeding that fever all the same.

he works at her own now with one hand, the other loathe to leave the small of her back, flat against bare skin, thumbing her spine - fair's fair in theory. but it's hard when her hips against his, pressed up just right, make him keen a little more against her mouth. he's pretty determined to remove it all the same, finally using his other hand and breaking the kiss with her to help get it off of her. it can join the pile. ]

[motivation]

[ he keens and dutch drinks the sound greedily, pressing her lips against his more heatedly to get him to make more noises like that, pressing her hips up more insistently, too.

she does, at least, briefly lift her arms so he can pull her shirt up over her head and then she reaches behind herself to undo her bra and tosses that aside while already leaning in to feel skin against skin, breasts pressing against his chest. the contact is enough to prompt a sharp intake of breath from her, stomach clenching tightly with want. ]

[stuns]

[ she earns it easily - the stimulation and the feel of her mouth gets a hungry kiss back, starved as he splays his fingers now over her bare back, drags her in closer to feel the shape of her flush against him. he sounds off again, a hum, a gasp, pulled back and softly brushing his temples to hers to get a breath.

it's overwhelming, between the rough texture at his back and warm strength of her pressed to him, but he lets his hands come down to settle at her hips, pulling her with him to take his place up against the tree for support. ]

[motivation]

[ he pulls and for once in her life, dutch goes willingly and easily, heat in her stomach and her arms around his neck so that she can pull him back against her the moment they've switched positions, one of her legs rising up to wrap around his hip— and then, a moment later, the other too, until his cock is nestled neatly between her legs, until he could press into her just like that if not for the clothing still between them.

hells, but she wants him. ]

[stuns]

[ she pulls him up against her once he's backed her up enough and immediately he hums into the kiss, adjusting himself to hold her steady as she makes it clear she has intentions with her other leg coming up off the ground. the clothing keeping them apart is almost infuriating in a way that has juno sliding one hand down to her hips, the other keeping dutch pinned along with the rest of his body.

do you know how hard it is to undress in conditions like these?

hideously difficult. because juno wants to feel every bit of her more than anything, and his fingers are frantic and god his cock can't stand the punishment of being confined like this. there's a point where he just gives up, and instead relies on that friction for a few moments, pressing up against her like he could fuck into her if they managed to untangle themselves from the rest of their clothing. ]

[motivation]

[ undressing in conditions like these is all but impossible, especially with both of them as far gone as they are on desire, on the heat building. hideously difficult is an understatement still —but for the moment, dutch can't bring herself to care because he moves against her like he could press into her, his confined cock nudging against her, friction bunching up her trousers and panties, rubbing them against her clit.

if he kept it up for long enough, if the angle was right, she could come from this. it wouldn't be nearly enough, but she could. she's tempted to make that happen because the need inside her belly burns, stomach tight with it.

she wants so much more, though. ]

Naked. Now.

[ just set her down, let her scramble out of her clothes. ]

[stuns]

Oh thank god.

[ hissed out through his teeth as he sets her down and immediately gets to work. she can undress herself and so can he - it's not that hard, boots, trousers, naked as nature itself because he doesn't fucking care at this point. the minute she's naked enough he's back at her, mouth against her throat, fingers finding the bare line of her hips, his cock hard and pressing flush against her again, this time without interruption as he hitches up just one of her thighs against his hip. ]

[motivation]

[ dutch won't ever admit that her hands are fumbling a little on her own belt, on her boots and trousers, that her fingers are trembling with the need to have him inside her already. she's wet and desperate with it, mouth dry —and then they're naked, or mostly (she's still wearing one boot, but who cares) and his lips are at her throat, his cock against her hip.

dutch reaches between them, grasping it, positioning him at her entrance. all it would take is for him to lean forward and he'd be pushing in. ]

[stuns]

[ leaning forward is almost instant, instinctive, wanting to be inside of her and surrounded by her warmth. he hitches her up just a bit and presses inwards with a half gasp because the sensation feels so goddamn perfect, like soothing water for a fever washing over his shoulders, down his spine.

moving rhythmically isn't any problem he realizes - the tree is good leverage and there's some rhythm that he can feel under his heel that seems to almost belong to the forest as he wraps an arm around her waist and fucks into her to the hilt. ]

[motivation]

[ he presses inward and dutch lets out a moan, something that's dragged from deep within her —it's relief and need wrapped into one, her body clenching around him as he pushes in, dragging him deeper until he's fully seated inside her.

and then he starts moving.

dutch's head falls back against the tree, back against the bark and hips pushing forward, meeting him with every thrust, matching his rhythm. one hand goes to his back, fingers digging into the muscle of his shoulder, the other finds his hand and drags it up to a bare breast, wanting, needing even more stimulation. ]