Participants:
| Scene Title | The Goddesses of the Earth and Forest |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | The Goddess of the Forest is taking a walk, the Goddess of the Earth returns to the scene of a crime, and Warren is communing with nature. They kick him out. |
| Date | September 15, 2010 |
It's been a strange few days for Warren. They haven't exactly been bad, it's just that he's suddenly discovered himself in the Greenbelt… the wilderness.
In this particular section, not far from where Nadia was attacked not long ago, by a certain Holiday-named Hobbit, it seems something is a little off since last time. When one looks up, they occasionally spot a few wooden boats tied together, attached to thick branches in the trees, clearly meant to be at least partially hidden. One also occasionally sees a strategically placed vine hanging from a tree or on the ground, leading to other sticks that do god knows what.
There's also the feeling when one walks over certain parts of the ground, that it's a bit off, harder than the rest of the ground, like there's something under the dirt. Someone with a certain ability could probably tell that there's bit hollowed out holes all over the ground. But Warren himself is no where to be seen, for now, only his possible traps and natural inventions.
While it might be easy for Milena to feel and manipulate the trees when she's rooted, it's an entirely different story when she's not. In fact, she's somewhat oblivious at the moment as she wanders away from the safety of the reclaimed area, looking over her shoulder to make sure she hasn't been followed or anything. She wants to get a few more samples and increase the biodiversity, as well as the gene pool, of the plants she's shaping there.
Dressed in a black sweatshirt and jeans, she's attired for preventing the scratches and scrapes she'd receive were she to go into this overgrown area completely unprotected. Over that, a vest, possibly hand-made, since there are some purposely-added strips of bright red cloth sewn into it that don't quite seem to belong. Every once in awhile, Milena will pause, uproot something, and put it into a bag she's carrying.
There's something beautiful about the untamed state of this area. It's not shaped, it's not molded, it's just been left to grow unchecked. It's a different kind of beauty than she's used to, being under the watchful eye of the government, but the wildness is appealing. After awhile of her collecting, and somehow - and possibly comically - avoiding the traps set by Warren, she places her hand against a tree, taking a breather.
She doesn't even know why she came out here. Last time Nadia came out this way, she met a grumpy old asshole who left her alone, then she met a homocidal maniac who wanted to kill her just because she's Evolved. She searched the area where she trapped him, peering into the 15 foot deep pit with a stick wedged into its side and the old footprints around the area.
She did find Warren's footprints, and has followed them this far; it's not difficult to notice the hollowed out holes around the ground, and she offers a grimace. Nadia Ba'albaki is dressed in attire suited to the chill that is starting to grace the air, wearing a pair of jeans, a t-shirt with the Vivitruvian Man painted across it, and a very light jacket. A small backpack-like purse hangs from her back, and strangely enough…she is barefoot.
Nadia cautiously makes her way through the area, turning her eyes up toward the trees, then back down to the ground. She looks unhappy.
"There's a killer in the forest, I'm hunting him." comes a voice from directly under Milena after the dirt moves a little, and she sees what looks like some sort of small plastic periscope painted brown, with the lens somehow rotated to turn up and look at her, using its flexible neck. "You can carry on. If he shows up I'll catch him."
The suddenness of the voice makes Milena jump. In her own mind, it feels like miles, but it's really just a foot or so, backward, away from the suddenly visible (to her anyway) periscope. She doesn't immediately say anything, or scream, or carry on, or storm off, but she does suddenly drop to the ground, reaching for the periscope as if intending to rip it out of the ground. She doesn't kindly take to people disturbing her or telling her that there's a killer in the forest.
The last is mostly because she should - and does - know better. There's no way Milena should be out here alone when Staten Island is in such a lawless state. There's a reason her current place of employment is called a 'reclaimed area,' after all.
Nadia certainly heard that voice. She follows it, her bare feet crunching on the dirt. Pausing by a tree, she peers at the sight before her: a woman grabbing at a periscope that's coming out of the ground. The Moroccan woman's brows raise, as she surveys this, her head canted to one side.
Then, the budding political celebrity steps out into view, only to lean against a tree. Her eyes travel from Milena, to the periscope, then back up to Milena. "Never normal these days, is it?" The woman, who can be seen on television, posters and magazine racks for her status as a pro-Registration Evolved (and the face of Registration itself), turns her dark eyes down toward the periscope. "Is that you, Warren…or Alex…or whatever it is you go by?"
"I'm Warren." he says as he releases the periscope, then dirt falls to the side as he pushes two sides of what seems to be lots of small logs tied together, for some sort of makeshift basement door, with a slight slant that makes it easy for him to simply walk up and out of it. That's exactly what he does, walking up until he's facing down Milena, the one he's unsure of possibly having a gun or not.
His attire is very different from the last time Nadia saw him, he looks almost otherworldly, or like some sort of forest spirit. His entire body is painted brown, probably using mud, and his eyes are still their silvery color, which only lends to the otherworldly affect. He's wearing a long green cloak with no shirt on, the hood being down at the moment, and his feet are on brown leather boots he likely made himself for navigating the forest. And last, but not least, he's wearing a bow made out of wood from the forest over left shoulder, and a sack of arrows across his back.
That robot arm isn't visible, it's completely covered by a long glove, which itself is covered by the mud.
With a combination of annoyance and a little bit of fear, Milena looks up as Nadia approaches. The fear becomes suspicion as she recognizes Nadia's face, then as she looks up at Warren. It used to be easy to take people at their word, and to be fair, if these people intended to hurt her, she would have been taken out a long time ago. Her ability is classified as potentially dangerous. "Well. You startled me."
Obviously not much of a fighter, she takes her eyes off the other two as she stands and brushes herself off with the hand that's not holding the periscope. In a very quiet fit of temper, the periscope is thrown as far as she can hurl it… Which isn't bad.
Go fish, Warren!
"Nadia." she says. They've never met, but Milena can recognize that face, since it's plastered all over the place. Idly, the blonde pulls her sleeves down until she can slip her thumb into them. If she has a weapon, she isn't immediately going for it… Or, perhaps, like some Evolved, she just doesn't need one. Resting her hand around the back of the nearest tree, she seems to relax a little.
With an intrigued look on her face, Nadia's eyes travel over Warren, with his strange attire. Her brows remain arched, and she offers a small shake of her head, sighing softly. "Warren…you look weird. You know you don't have to paint yourself like that just because you're out here." Her eyes turn toward the ground. "Why'd you make all of these holes?" What holes?
The woman blinks over to Milena. It's still difficult to get used to having people who she has never met recognizing her face. She stares for a long moment, then offers a smile. "Well, you've already met me, then. Might I request your name?" Nadia offers a slightly charming smile over to Milena, quietly fidgeting with the straps of her purse, while the toes of her bare feet wiggle into the dirt.
Warren's eyes turn to watch the periscope fly, then he walks to lean against a tree, shaking his head at Nadia. "I'm hunting, and communing with nature. I came out here to find that guy, and then I realized how versatile it all is. The wood, the vines, the leaves, I can use it all! I can live out here, I never have to leave." He spreads his arms out, as if to welcome them to his home. "I've made traps, and hiding places, and make this my own. Anyone who survives here, does so because I let them."
Milena's dark blue eyes look back to Warren. She's not quite sure whether the body paint on him is stranger than Nadia's bare feet, or vice-versa. What she does know is that she's a little irritated with the bravado… Milena feels closer to nature than he ever will, mostly because she's a little upset that she was surprised, and a little jealous that he can feel that way without having a link into it. Or, alternately, maybe he does!
She doesn't move again, but as she leans against the tree, her fingers just press into it, out of the sight of the others, if she's lucky. "It's Milena." Not really wordy at the moment, she's still feeling the other two out… Or perhaps she's just concentrating. The connection is almost immediate, and suddenly, the tree she's leaning against, the one that Warren is near, is only an extension of herself. One of the roots snaps up through the ground and will, if he's not very fast, wrap around his entire lower body up to his hips. This is mostly just to punctuate the whole 'let them live' thing. To be fair, the look on Milena's face mostly reflects the irony of the situation. It lacks aggression completely.
Part of Nadia really wants to mention that the only reason Warren's not buried underground right now is because she decided not to collapse his little underground fort, or whatever it is. If it weren't for the fact that he is hunting the man who tried to kill her, she would bring attention to this detail; Warren, after all, is one of the few people who actually knows what she can do.
She does, however, fix the man with a frown, crossing her arms. "You're not communing with nature. You're just destroying it." She frowns, tapping one of those bare feet on one of those hard sections of ground.
Then, Milena is displaying the fact that she is an Evolved, and Nadia jumps back, brows arched high. "Woah!" She glances toward Milena, then back to the tree root that is currently doing its best to wrap Warren up.
Warren freezes up when the tree root starts wrapping around him, his silvery eyes wide as they attempt to somehow discern the mechanics of what's happening. Only, they can't, this is some sort of… natural occurrence. He doesn't make a move to touch the vines, or free himself, he just suddenly looks up at the trees. "I've angered the god of the forest. I have been destroying it." He sounds entirely serious, then holds his hands up to beckon… whoever's up there in the trees. "God of the forest, if you're listening, I will do whatever it takes to atone for my actions!"
It doesn't even cross Milena's mind to use the tree to harm Warren. Well, it does, but she can't, won't, and has no reason to do it. It's irritating that she can't make herself strike back, but it's something she'll have to learn at some point if she hopes to be any sort of presence against the people who hurt her.
With the same suddenness it used to wrap Warren, the root releases him, swaying like an angry cobra as it backs away from him, leaving a deep furrow torn in the earth wherever it moves. It has never seen the light of day; hanging off of it is a literal army of dirt and detritus, adding to the personality, until it abruptly dives back into the ground. Dirt falls around it, and it's gone.
"Just sayin'," Milena says. She gives her hand a tug…
And another. "Sh— shoot. Dammit." Wrapping her free hand around her trapped wrist, she tugs again. Perhaps the presence of these people made her more nervous than she understood. "Your god says to help her get out of this tree."
Nadia's watching Milena with raised eyebrows, even as Warren is having a freakout session. She blinks a few times, glancing toward him after he cries out to this god of the forest, brows raising.
She almost lets him keep up that delusion that the forest is angry with him. But she feels kind of bad for that. "No…I don't think it was a god or anything. The existence of Evolved really makes it difficult to believe in the existence of acts of God, or Allah. Usually, it's just an Evolved." She glances back toward Milena, approaching her to peer at her trapped hand. "…Now that's fascinating…" She does attempt to help.
"Ahh, it was you!" Warren says as he makes the connection, his silvery eyes spotting her hand lodged into the tree. "Goddess of the Forest. Have some respect, Nadia!" He pulls a small wood carving knife from his jeans, then leans down and presses his ear against the tree, knocking on it a few times. "Don't move your hand, Goddess." he warns before he starts carving into the tree, somehow managing to avoid her hand as he meticulously watches his work. "Wood is such an amazing material, but it belongs to you. I won't harm anything else in your forest without your permission."
Some people would be charmed. Milena is… A little. She can't feel the tree's pain, though with her fingers still rooted into it, she can detect anything that comes into contact with it, including Warren and the blade. She maintains a grip on her own wrist, the cloth under it wrinkling and bunching as she tugs.
"Seriously, it's just Milena." Another glance is given to Nadia… It's hard to determine what she feels for the other woman. Registering was probably the worst thing Milena ever did for various reasons, and yet her registration got her a (hopefully) safe job. "We should— " She gives her hand another tug, despite Warren's warnings. His ministrations won't actually help, since she's pretty deeply rooted into it, but it gives her a little more time to pull back into herself, and finally, her fingers come free of the tree. The only holes left behind are shallow indentations, and, of course, Warren's carving. "We should talk about that registration business," she finishes at Nadia.
To Warren, she says, "Thanks, I think that did it." Kind of a lie, but while she's not really a trusting person, she's not a hurtful person, either.
Nadia grimaces at Warren. "She's Evolved. Not a goddess of the forest. If she's goddess of the forest, I'm goddess of the earth, and I certainly don't feel like a goddess." She shakes her head to Warren, rolling her eyes. Part of this snarky commentary is because she's starting to get used to being a celebrity, and it's usually her who is the one in the spotlight. If she wasn't histrionic before, she certainly will be within a few months of becoming a celebrity.
As Milena mentions 'registration business', Nadia suddenly slumps slightly, heaving a sigh out. "I'm not really the best person to talk about when it comes to Registration. I mostly just read what they tell me to read, and smile."
"Forest Goddess… Milena, I'll clean it all up, and fill the holes, then leave. I apologize for trampling on your territory." Warren says as he starts to pull apart the doors of that hole, tossing them into some bushes. Then, a glance to Nadia and a shake of his head. "You control rocks, that doesn't make you a goddess. Controlling the dirt would make you a goddess."
Finding out that people are evolved stopped surprising Milena a long time ago. Checking her fingers (And making sure both sleeves are pulled down again), she steps back away from Warren's holes. "If you're after a killer, then by all means…" she says, gesturing toward the hide. "I don't have territory. I'm out here collecting plant samples. See?" Opening the bag, she shows off the leaves, roots, and flowers that are inside of it.
To her, it doesn't matter if Nadia is just a face, or not. "You're making registration seem like it doesn't come with any dangers. There's a whole new set. I mean, not that I haven't already done so, but now I kind of wish I hadn't." Pausing, she kicks some dirt into the small valley left by the tree root. "Look… I gotta go. If there's some killer out here, well, I guess I have enough samples."
A rather flat look is turned on Warren from Nadia. "You are way too quick to assume things." She raises a hand, watching him with hooded eyes for a long moment. It's really an aimless, shallow gesture, meant to infer that she is responsible for what comes next.
Suddenly, a low groan comes from the very ground itself, accompanied by a low rumble. "Since you're going to fill the holes in anyhow…" And then, the holes that Warren had created inside the earth all collapse at once. The earth rumbles beneath the group's feet all the while, even as the earth continues to move, flattening out until the clearing is flat as can be.
Then, it stops.
The woman turns to peer over at Milena, brows arching. "There's no more danger than there was when Evolved first came out."
"Registration's alright with me. If anyone wants to come and try to kill me, well, I'm always looking for a reason." Warren offers that little slasher smile, but then his eyebrows raise when the holes collapse, and he stares at Nadia. "Earth Goddess, and the Forest Goddess Milena… and you're about to fight." He stands up straight, stretching, then starts heading in what's possible a random direction; the direction Milena came from. "I'm going home, I just remembered I have a woman."