RP:Frostmaw's Man-Eating Plant
Winter Berry Garden
Daisy ducks through that little opening in the hedge with a glance over her shoulder to make sure her dryad friend is still following. Not that Madigan would just decide to take off after promising to help! She wouldn’t do something like that. But Frostmaw is pretty amazing and it is easy to get distracted by things when passing them by. “This is the garden.” It has taken some time to figure out how exactly she is going to make the garden pretty again. Lucky for her, wizards are brilliant with the greatest advice. Maybe not all wizards, but The Wizard is.
Madigan didn't get distracted or lost, fortunately. Her eyes swept over the garden's plant life but her attention was quickly grabbed by the patch of rotting magic that sucked the life out of anything that tried to occupy its place. "So that's what you were talking about," she says out loud to seemingly no one in particular even though her words addressed Daisy. She sets down her bag on the ground near the patch and walks off to crouch beside a baby plant. Delicately, she uproots the baby plant and walks over to the patch, picking up a nearby stick to dig a hole within the patch's perimeters. Planting the baby plant carefully without touching the dirt herself but using the stick, she sits back to observe what exactly happens to the baby plant.
Daisy watches the dryad’s little experiment. She’s already done months of experiments herself, so the druid just sits back to watch, knowing what is going to happen to that replanted baby. Sure enough, within seconds it dies. Withers to nothing as its life is sucked dry by that magic. “I’ve been working on something that might be able to survive the circle. By itself, it is mostly harmless.” She pulls from her bag a plush looking, heart-shaped, green malanga leaf that is quite shiny. “But when there is a bunch of them, they emit an enticing odor.”
Madigan purses her lips as the baby plant dies, having expected as much from what Daisy had told her but wanting to observe whatever mechanisms she could about the occurrence. She glances at the plant Daisy pulls out of her bag and crawls onto her knees, reaching forward to touch the plant. "I like that plant," she says plainly, sniffing it to see if it gives off a scent. If there was a scent, it was subtle. She sits back and stares into the circle, recalling what Daisy had asked of her to do. They were going to try to raise something that could survive in the circle to mask the ugliness of the patch. Madigan's eyes wander about the garden and over the patch as she takes in the full view. It *is* ugly surrounded by all these things. Softly sighing, she asks, "How did this thing get here, anyway?" as she presses her cheek against the floor staring at the patch to see if she could find any microactivity on the surface of the patch. "I think I have a plant in mind that may manage to survive in this thing... you said it's sucking life out of things?"
Daisy has spent more than her fair share staring at that magic with her nose right up to it. There is a smile on her lips when the plant is sniffed. That subtle scent kind of makes everyone feel a little better about the day. “Fighting magical vampires.” The kitten isn’t quite sure all of the details, but that is the tl;dr version that most people easily accept. She looks around the much beloved garden to admire its beauty. “Sucks it right up.” Turning back towards Madigan and the circle, she kneels beside her friend. “Except for these.” We can all thank Svilfon for planting (see what I did there?) the idea in Daisy’s head to use something the magic might like. She takes her malanga plant and shoves it into the ground just outside of the circle. Whispered druidic words are spoken and the plant multiplies around that dark magic like dominos in reverse. Heart-shaped faces sprout and bob in the cold Frostmaw air, greeting each other like old friends. “I hope.” Arms spread in a wide circle, she takes a step back with more muttered words. As the furry circle of her arms closes in on itself, those leaves thicken and blanket over the area nothing likes to grow in. The druid pushes harder and harder until the circle decides it likes the leaves, allowing them to thrive brightly. Yes. They can stay. Why? Those leaves will encourage people to come closer with their sweet smell and then the magic can steal energy! Bwahahaha! That is the sound of black magical circle of death laughing, if you were wondering.
Madigan watches in silence, her mind filling with that alluring smell. "We need to make a mutualistic relationship between the dead patch and whatever grows on it," she realizes out loud. "But if that scent isn't enough to attract food, the patch will just kill these plants, instead. We need something a little more proactive. What I have in mind might just work. It's really aggressive, a carnivorous plant, really. It'll eat any animal right up to feed itself, and by doing so, it'll feed the patch, too, so they both benefit from the relationship." She looks over to Daisy and smiles before turning to her bag and rummaging through it. "Maybe I have a seed lying around already..." Madigan pulls from her bag a wrinkled-up seed the size of a chestnut and, with the stick in her hand, starts digging a hole in the very center of the blanket of malanga leaves.
Daisy leans back to admire her work while listening to Madigan. Nods of agreement bob the kitten’s head. “The Queen comes here, though. Her friends and allies too. We don’t want the plants to hurt them. Maybe we can train the plants to only seduce those intending on harming the Queen.” You don’t know how to do that, kitten. She wrinkles her nose, wishing she would think about things before just blurting them out.
Madigan shakes her head, "It wouldn't work like that. Plants are only kind to their kin, those genetically related to themselves." Her brows furrow as she considers this. "We could infuse some of Satoshi's DNA with the plant... we'll have to go get that, then." Her eyes wander about the floor as she contemplates for a long moment. "If she comes here often, then we might be able to find something of hers here that we can use."
Daisy loves how sciencey her friend is. Smart girls are so hot. Hey! Snap out of it, kitten! She shakes her head and stands up. “Oh, that makes sense.” Infusing dna sounds like it isn’t so hard to do. Piece of cake. Now to just find that something of Satoshi’s. Her feet barely make a sound as they pad across the snow. Like some sort of planned miracle, a silky strand of hair glistens in the willow tree. Good thing the Queen isn’t much taller than the gardening pair! “Maaaaadigan,” she sings, carefully pulling that hair from the tree’s waving branches. “Look at what I found.”
Madigan raises her brow as she approaches her friend, eyes trained at the small thing between her fingers. "How convenient," she smirks, wondering if her friend had foreseen the need and had pulled it out of her bag or something. Madigan grabs the strand of hair from Daisy and walks back toward the circle, laying out on her stomach with the strand in one hand and the seed in the other, staring at them as she twirls the strand of hair between her fingers. She was thinking. Finally, she gets up onto her knees and wraps the hair around the seed, placing them together in the hole she made carefully. As she pulls her hand away, she sways slightly and shakes her head... wow, that force works quick to drain life out of things. With her stick, she covers up the hole, explaining, "Sometimes two different trees will merge together and connect to become like one entity with their own unique sets of genes. That's what we hope will happen to the hair and the seed." She glances over at Daisy with a subtle smile and clears the snow out from in front of her to press her palms to the dirt underneath. Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply and exhaled, channeling her energy into the soil, through the patch and into the seed and hair. Slowly, a sprout of a plant crops up from between the malanga leaves.
Daisy hunches down next to Madigan as she watches the dryad work, always so interested in other magics. Her friend’s earthy magic isn’t so far from her own, really. Reaching over, she places a paw over Madigan’s hand to increase the growing magic. Aw! Look at the cute little sprout! A smile beams on Madigan as their shoulders press together. “Let’s make it bigger.”
Madigan nods to Daisy and closes her eyes again, the essences of their magical energies combining together and pushing itself into the soil to spring the plant further into its development. Its stem begins to thicken and vine-like structures start to bud out from its base, the vines weaving between the malanga leaves. Soon enough, the plant is as tall as Madigan and Daisy are, and what looks like its gigantic bud splays apart to reveal a hole in the center through which it hisses. Madigan jerks back at the sudden hiss, eyes wide open in fear, but she relaxes when the plant doesn't respond to their proximity aggressively. The dryad exhales in relief, somewhat surprised the mouth of the plant wasn't its usual bright and exotic yellow but was more monochromatic, but she supposed that suited with Satoshi's DNA. Madigan turns to Daisy and grins. "It's not attacking us, which is really good. It recognizes us somehow." She thinks quietly for a brief moment, wondering why exactly they weren't being attacked. "I mean, it wouldn't attack Satoshi and anyone she's related to because the plant is kin to Satoshi and, by virtue, related to her relatives, too. But we're not related to Satoshi.... maybe it absorbed some of Satoshi's essence..." she mumbles to herself, staring at the plant. "It'll recognize anyone Satoshi is familiar and non-hostile with. I wonder if it'd be inclined to attack anyone Satoshi does dislike." She was just thinking out loud now.
Daisy is very quiet as she looks over their work. The sea of malanga leaves ripple above those vines while the large centerpiece closes its gaping mouth-hole. Such a pretty bud, isn’t it. So sweet and not dangerous looking at all! “They deserve what they get for crossing the Queen in her own garden.” A devious little grin spreads the kittens lips as she turns to her friend. “Thank you!” And the dryad is pounced into a tumbleroll there in the snow. Kitten cuddles are the best!
Madigan breaks out into hives from an allergic reactio-- juuuuust kidding! She squeaks in surprise when Daisy pounces her and starts to giggle as they rolled along. Madigan hadn't played like that in so long. It had to have been nearly a century since. "We make a crazy partnership with our experiments," she comments gleefully, a devilish smile on her lips, her green eyes hinting at their past so-called experimenting.
Daisy presses a finger to Madigan’s lips. “Ssshhh.” She looks around the garden to make sure they are alone while cocking an ear to listen for doubley insurance. Satisfied there is no one, she grins widely right back at Madigan and presses their foreheads together for whispering. “That is what friends do.”