{ open | event, and for the month! }

[blackmagus]

THE WEEK OF THE TRIFFIDS |

It's Jazz who notices that things aren't as they should be, a fact which he'd certainly try to parade around if he could speak. As it happens, he spots something amiss as Fortescue is on a morning walk into the city. Movement snakes at the corner of his green eyes, and he shifts on Fortescue's shoulders to watch it. She pays no mind, humming a bit of The Magic Flute; he watches birds in the same manner.

But she absolutely notices when a section of vine suddenly extends from a planter and wraps around her ankle, yanking her off of her feet. Jazz leaps to safety, snarling and hissing, keeping his distance as he was trained to do.

Fortescue, meanwhile, grits her teeth and taps into her pyromancy. Flames dance along her skin, avoiding her skin but not the vines that are trying to drag her bodily into the planter for... whatever the vines are attached to. She isn't too certain.

"Oh, just get off," she manages. The vines make a whining sound -- how on Earth or any other world do plants make sounds? -- and retreat, but not before a section of one burns off. Fortescue doesn't get up immediately, watching with narrowed eyes. "...just where did you..."

The thought is abandoned as two more sections of plant life suddenly lurch out, one around her right wrist and one around her other ankle. Fortescue's yanked a few more feet along before she huffs out an angry, "All right then," and ignites all of her body. This time, though it hurts the vines the same, the plant seems just as angry and sends out as many vines as she can burn. A deeper noise starts coming out of the planter, something bigger wriggling forward -- something which looks like a person-sized, yellow bulb.

THE THINGS FROM ANOTHER WORLD |

When she isn't being grabbed by enthusiastic greenery, and when other people aren't, Fortescue can be found in the library looking at cookbooks. She's curious about other things she could make which would be feasible for a beginning cook, and the library does have a good selection. Jazz lounges in the sun on the floor, often right in the way of other readers. Some of her experiments are done in the temple's kitchen as well as her own, and when they turn out well she sets them out in offering to those who still bunk down in the temple. She's experimenting with various pasta dishes, slowly amping up the difficulty.

She can also be found in the temple training rooms ever so often, dressed simply and taking out any excessive energy on a punching bag. Everything about her form and stance indicates a seasoned fighter. Jazz curls on the shoulders of a training dummy, and purrs smugly at anyone who approaches it and needs to use it.

Comments

[panicswitched]

The moment she realized something funky was going on again, Ashley has been prowling around Teleios to see if she can figure out what's causing this and how to stop it. If she finds anyone who needs help... well, that's just a bonus. She's had to deal with a couple of them herself, but with her super-healing and super-strength, not to mention the deadly talons, the plants aren't much of a threat. Annoying, definitely, but she isn't worried.

This probably means she's not going to stay unharmed for long, but oh well.

Whatever the case, she comes up on Fortescue at a bad time. "Seriously? That's peachy." Peachy keen. Hurrying forward, she slices at the vines, letting her talons rip right through them. This doesn't really help much aside from make the vines angrier. Ashley just stares.

"You have got to be kidding."

[blackmagus]

This is most certainly in the annoying category. Fortescue twists around, wishing she'd remembered to bring her gauntlets. She sighs in relief when Ashley suddenly appears in the peripheral of her vision and clears up the problem. The immediate problem, at least.

A growling is coming from the bushes, from the pod-thing -- whatever it is.

"Thank you, love," she huffs, scrambling quickly to her feet. Her arms and legs are still ablaze. Jazz snarls at the vines as they start wriggling, clearly about to strike again. "I don't know what set this thing off, but it's really intent on trying to devour me. And I picked this morning to run out without my weapons, naturally."

[panicswitched]

Lifting her hands, Ashley moves into position at Fortescue's back, just in case something gets the bright idea to try to back attack one of them. She flexes her fingers, clawing the air like a cat.

"Yeah this is kinda happening all over," she admits. "Not sure why. Where are your weapons right now?"

[blackmagus]

"Glad to hear it isn't just me with a handsy plant," Fortescue says, sighing as she gathers her hands in front of her. She half-balls her fingers together and the flames grow hotter and hotter. The next vine that lashes out for her is going to have an unfortunate end.

Or perhaps it would be better if it were just her and one plant...

"My weapons are back at the house. But fire should work just fine," she says thoughtfully. "Now that I know to use it."

And assuming that she's careful with it and doesn't light anything else on fire.

[panicswitched]

Ashley eyes the fire with mild wariness. She remembers the one time she got set on fire. Hilariously enough, her mom was the one who released the fire elemental, but Helen had done it to stop the Cabal Super-Abnormals and Ashley was just one of them. So Ashley can't blame her mom; it made sense and stopped them cold without killing them.

Or it actually stopped them hot but oh well.

"Can you set me on fire like that?" she asks cautiously, an idea forming. Not her best, but on the plus side, she's pretty sure that whatever Fortescue is doing can't be worse than a fire elemental.

kitchen;

[last_ofthe_jedi]

While he's certainly no expert, Luke's managed to really improve his own cooking skills through simple necessity. After that, he started to enjoy it, especially when he gets to cook for someone else and especially when that someone is Fortescue. Doing things for her in general is something he likes to keep up.

Fortescue learning how to cook for herself does take away some opportunities Luke may have to impress her, but it also seems to open up new ones. For example, he can now teach her the tricks he's learned.

Or he can stand around and be an incredibly unhelpful troll. Pasta's quite easy, but there's a lot of waiting around for water to boil involved. During such a time, Luke leans with his elbows on a counter, watching, and tells Fortescue, "Don't burn the water."

It's rather difficult for him to hide the smirk at the corner of his mouth.

[blackmagus]

Fortescue turns her head away from the water -- which now has bubbles gathering in it -- to glance at Luke. She's picked cacio e pepe from a cookbook she found in the library because it had sounded foolproof. Or extremely easy, at least. She could still burn things. She's good at that.

But water? Tsk, tsk.

"Really? Perhaps I will," she says playfully. She picks up the hefty block of parmesan on the chopping board and waves it at Luke, waggling a brow at him. "For that, you can grate this for me."

[last_ofthe_jedi]

Luke's smirk becomes a grin when Fortescue turns to give him that look. When she waves the parmesan at him, though, he just tucks his chin into the palm of one hand.

"But then you'd miss out on the cheese-grating experience. That's a very important part of learning how to cook. You won't learn if I do it for you." He raises his eyebrows, as if indicating that he has a very good point.

And it is a good point, but Luke's mostly just giving her a hard time. He picks up the cheese grater by its handle with his free hand and idly plays with it, taunting her.

[blackmagus]

She lets out a tiny, exaggerated huff of air, one hand on a hip as she glances at the wiggling cheese grater. Part of her just wants to let out a snort of laughter and tackle him, but the rest of her holds on.

There's time for that later, after all.

"I've grated cheese before. That's one of the things mum would trust me with, since there was no heat involved," Fortescue scoffs, mostly for the effect of this teasing exchange they're in. Smirking, she holds out her hand for the grater. "If you're just going to stand there and look handsome, I'll ask for posing. It's the least you can do."

[last_ofthe_jedi]

"Posing? What kind of posing?" he asks warily despite grinning, suddenly holding the cheese grater closer to him. He doesn't want to give it up if posing is the alternative.

The truth is, he knows exactly what kind of posing Fortescue wants. He's just trying to buy himself some time. The very idea makes his cheeks go pink and he's already telling himself that it's just not happening.

[destinysbitch]

Wesley was tired of being attacked by plants, and had taken refuge in the library as well. He was trying to come up with a few recipes of his own, to surprise his mom, in thanks for being there for him. He was an amateur when it came to cooking, though, other than things like... well, haunches of meat, so he was looking for something simple.

Spotting her, and Jazz, when he was looking through the stacks, he gave a small smile and wave. "Afternoon."

[blackmagus]

Fortescue has a hefty tome in her hands, a collection of Italian recipes which seem to be at her difficulty level as far as cooking is concerned. But some of the recipes can be a bit difficult to decipher. Perhaps it gets easier, the more time you have to stare at them.

She glances up from the old, aromatic pages and smiles back at Wesley. Jazz purrs away in his pane of sunlight on the floor.

"Good afternoon. Looking for a recipe?"

Most people, she's noticed, aren't in this section of the library.

[destinysbitch]

"Yes. Completely lost, but looking." Wesley offered her a smile, if a shy one, thinking she was cute in a way, and promptly stumbled over one foot while distracted, only to manage to plant face-first into the bookshelf he was in front of.

Wesley straightened up, facepalmed, gently, and sighed. Yep. That was his luck.

"Just, ah, something simple."

[blackmagus]

Politely, she simply gives him a sympathetic look when he faceplants into the bookshelf -- rather than smile or chuckle. Fortescue's known quite a few clumsy people, and Luke can be clumsy when he's preoccupied.

"Are you all right?" Fortescue nods at the thick book in her arms. Good thing the new kitchen is big. It wouldn't have fit on the old counter at the homestead, she's sure. "That's exactly what I'm here for. I thought I'd try some Italian cooking."

Perhaps, when she gets better, she can approach French recipes.

"I'm rubbish," she adds. "I used to burn everything as a child."

[destinysbitch]

"Agh, yes, just my dignity hurt." He smiled a little, then nodded.

"I just want... anything. I mostly used advanced tech to make my food, then learned real low tech, as in fire pits, and nothing inbetween." He shook his head.

"I just want to make a few things." He peered at the shelves, taking down a book. "Now if I can find something simple, and get the ingredients, maybe I can cook it without burning down the house."

[spellpower]

By now, Neria's come to expect this sort of thing, and she comes prepared. On the lookout for people in trouble, she picks up the sounds of a struggle and rushes around the corner, skidding to a stop by Fortescue's side. The flames actually don't surprise her, and if anything, her look towards them is filled with longing. Her magic is something she hasn't asked to have returned yet. There were more important things...

But right now, she'll do what she can to help this mage since even her fire doesn't seem to be stopping the vines. Whipping out a dagger, she slices through vines as quickly as they reach out.

"Can you get to your feet before more grab you?" she asks hurriedly, attacking each new tendril that snakes out. She also sees the bulb in the middle, and whatever it is, she's prepared to stab it if need be.

[blackmagus]

Fortescue feels some admitted relief when Neria doesn't react to the flames licking up and down her legs and arms. This would be a poor time indeed to surprise someone who hadn't come from a world with magic. Many, many people in Teleios hadn't seen magic before they arrived. She's startled more than a few simply by discussing it casually.

"Trying," she says briefly, gritting her teeth in frustration. Not at Neria. In fact, she gets out a quick, "Thank you!"

With the two of them working on the vines, she's able to scramble to her feet and back up. Now if the vines want to get to her, they'll have to be determined; they've lost the element of surprise.

"They managed to get me when I wasn't paying attention," she admits, the flames on her legs growing more intense.

[spellpower]

Once Fortescue is on her feet, Neria springs back on her own, dagger still held out, ready to defend herself.

"That tends to be the way of things," she says absently, before backing up quickly as the vines prepare for another attack. "Think they can get through doors?"

[blackmagus]

Eyeing the vines as they twitch in the other brush, she shrugs her shoulders and tries to imagine what one of them might do to a door.

"I doubt it," Fortescue hazards. "Unless they know how to wiggle the handles."

Around here, one never really knows about these things. For all she knows, the extra-handsy plant is an unpleasant newcomer to Teleios. That would be a terrible bit of luck. More than likely, however, this is just like when Teleios was invaded by creatures. Mass chaos with some sort of agent cause.

Because that's usually what it boils down to. Agents.

"Shall we try one?"

[spellpower]

"Or if they can fit under it. But that bottlenecks them anyway." Neria gives a brief nod. "Let's." By now she has a few contingency plans in place for most of the strange things Teleios throws at them. While retreating indoors is a danger if whatever is attacking can follow, if there's a back door or window to escape out of, it's worth trying just to see if the enemy can follow or not.

[borneinblood]

Altruism isn't something that Druitt is much inclined to. But he is an old hand at violence, and for all that having to deal with rampaging plant life is a little outside the scope of the usual, for him he figures it's best to take what he can get. Besides, the pair of swords he's brought back from the Arena will be just as good for this as anything else, and fewer people are likely to complain about him working out any latent aggression on a bit of over-active vegetation than anything else.

(He might not be against the idea of sparring, but it's not really the same, in the long run.)

He happens across Fortescue just as she sets herself on fire, and for all that he's known more than a few people with unusual abilities (himself included) that isn't one that he can say he's seen much, before. There are elementals, yes, but those are really more to do with the embodiment of an element as opposed to someone who can simply bend it to their will, as seems to be the case here.

"Impressive."

[blackmagus]

By the time another vine tries to fully wrap around Fortescue's ankle, she has her fire at such a blaze that the vine all but disintegrates the instant it comes into contact with her. Huffing in annoyance -- she's even seen this type of thing before, but not this persistent -- she climbs to her feet and then, distracted, glances over toward the familiar-looking man.

Ah, she's talked to him at one of the arrival ceremonies, hasn't she?

"Thank you, darling," she responds lightly, as another vine tries for her left wrist. But the fire evaporates it, too, and the orange pod in the planter roars in either anger or pain. Fortescue hopes it's the former. She's seen the research for plants feeling pain, and that doesn't sit too well with her if that's the case. All those children plucking flowers...

The blaze on her arms and legs has now reached the intensity of a long-burning campfire. But the plants are the only things that need to worry, here.

"These plants are getting awfully aggressive. Have they been bothering you as well?"

[borneinblood]

Fortunately perhaps, he's not too worried about the fire. He is, admittedly, staying a respectable distance away, if not so far that conversation becomes difficult, but he has at least one escape route, should things take a turn for the less-than-favorable. But for now, he's willing enough to simply let things continue as they are.

And for all that she does seem to the primary target of the vines, he's keeping an eye out just in case an inquisitive vine decides to take an attempt at grabbing someone who isn't very literally on fire.

"They've tried. But they haven't gotten very far."

His swords alone have seen to that, even if what he's been doing has been more along the lines of aggressive pruning than any real attempts to help out other people. But it's worked well enough for him, and he figures that's the most important thing, in the long run.

[blackmagus]

"I wish they'd bugger off and go back to the woods. Or wherever else they came from," Fortescue sighs. It's an explosive sigh, as another vine tries for one of her legs and retreats with a singed end. That one had felt almost... barbed, before the fire had swiftly caught it.

Perhaps, she thinks, she should count herself lucky that this isn't a murderous poison ivy plant. Or something much more severe. Nightshade comes to mind. Jazz hisses loudly at the vines and backs up a few more steps, all of his black fur puffed up as he tries to look menacing.

[borneinblood]

"I'm not sure they're woodland plants."

This is offered as if it's the most natural thing in the world to be casually discussing the origins of plant life that may or may not be inclined to try seeing what the taste of human flesh is like. Not that he's much of a botanist either way, but it's the point of the thing, for the most part.

"Although I might be more concerned about that."

He indicates the pod in the planter with one of his swords. It's clearly a part of the organism as a whole, but to what end, and what they might have to expect of it are questions that he can't answer.