RP:Night Flowers
Summary: Just trying to befriend murder dolls met at night in the middle of the forest, as one does.
Lush Forest
The heady scent of many flowering blooms settles heavily in this area. Buzzing sounds reverberate, as a multitude of tiny black and yellow bees skitter from flower to flower in search of their sweetest nectars. Tall, leafy limbs provide shade and protection from the harshest of elements, swaying softly with the gentle breeze wafting by. The luxuriance of sage continues east and south of here, while the ever thickening forest blocks all other avenues.
The sun was just beginning to dip in the horizon, still in the very early stages of sunset and still plenty of light left for Meri to see. Meri is dressed in her usual style, one that is more practical than fashionable. The most fashionable aspect of her attire was the corset that she wears, today a deep shade of burgundy, the practical being a simple pair of black pants that are tucked into a worn in set of boots. Daggers have also been tucked into the back of each boot, but that is more of a safety precaution -- most would agree that it is usually not safe to travel entirely unarmed in these lands. Then again, many may not consider daggers to be a very menacing 'weapon'. It is at the base of the tree that Meri has seated herself, a sketchbook laid and open on the grass right before Meri. It's opened to a blank page and a piece of charcoal sits in the upper left hand corner of the book, Meri's blue eyes on the empty page as if she were half expecting for it to tell her what to draw upon it (or maybe she was just having a bit of an artistic block). Sitting immediately to the left of Meri is a satchel that is resting upon a black jacket, brought along to help combat the chill of the night when it comes. Right hand reaches forward to pick up her piece of drawing charcoal but just as quick as Meri picks it up, she puts it right back down.
No sleep for the guardian. She doesn't really need it to be honest. The demands of flesh is non-existent to those who completely lacks it. Chisel walks into the forest all day and night. She doesn't know if there are any other dryads upon these lands so she simply placed herself as the defacto guardian of these forests, Stretching her boundaries as she handles four forests at the same time, it isn't exactly difficult but it was clearly time consuming. She kept walking as the sun slowly dips on the distance. The figure walks by wearing a simple white silk dress-gown, from a distance, it would appear as a normal woman, carrying a lantern that is hoisted on a long stick. But on closer inspection one would see that it was indeed a walking doll. Joints upon her body has gaps like a marionette that she is. Rumors has spread by word of tongue about the haunted marionette that comes out from the forests. Same reason it was a rarity to find bandits around this place anymore. Chisel however ignore all, only focused on taking care of her lands, walking about quietly. Meri would most likely spot her as her Lantern leaves a bright light on her wake.
It would indeed be from a distance that Chisel is first spotted, the light of the lantern catching the attention of the artist whose attention was driftIng anyway. From that distance not much is thought of Chisel's approach, she just looked like your average dame, perhaps taking a stroll through the forest, maybe en route back home. Meri does not hypothesize on these various notions for long. Blue eyes drop back to the empty page of her sketchbook for a ftw action of a second before they flit up to the sky and a long sigh is heaved. Perhaps her recent tattooing spree has left her rather drained of artistic creativity, she muses inwardly to herself, but then again it could be any number of things on Meri's plate that could be causing her to feel this way. These thoughts fade to the back of her mind as she starts to enviously study the way the colors of the sunset blend together so smoothly and how they continue to change as day fades further into night. Chisel's approach is all but forgotten for a significant amount of time, allowing the haunted marionette to draw closer and closer. The glimmer of the lantern catches Meri's attention and her gaze cuts back to Chisel again, finally coming to the realization that she was mistaken in her assumption that this was a woman. What was Chisel even? Meri did not know, and if she had heard the rumors she was drawing a blank. As reckless as the blonde is often prone to being with some of the creatures in these lands, Meri is a little less than eager to greet Chisel. The tactic here is actually going to be hold very still and hope that perhaps Chisel does not notice here because trying to move out of her line of sight is probably near impossible without being noticed, so or Meri figures. Actually she figures she may be SOL either way.
There is no point in hiding really. Whenever a forest spirit enters a forest, such territory becomes her domain. Letting her see, feel everything around her. It would be impossible to hide from the woman. Every plant, every animal speaks to her as she continues to walk. Today has been quite a day, a number of animal corpses. Deer or elk as wild animals began to flourish once again within the forest. The lack of bandits or hunters had called the animals back into their respective places. She quietly kneels down and places a hand against to what was left of a deer. Soon roots from a nearby tree began sprouting out of the earth, coiling onto the corpse and began dragging it into the ground. In a few more moments it was out of sight. The sun has finally set now and darkness began to envelop the sky, though Chisel doesn't appear hostile. I was odd, the rumors specifically imply that the haunted doll appears by this time of the day and yet there she with nothing happening. Was there a different doll? truth to be told, it was her magical lantern. The dark forest was lit as she kept walking around, soon finding herself a few meters closer to the woman before finally saying. "It is both impossible and unwise to hide within someone's territory." without even glancing as she kept looking around for plants to help or animal corpses to use as fertilizer.
For few moments there, Meri actually believed that luck may be on her side and that she may just go entirely unnoticed by this forest spirit. Was it though? Meri watches on in total silence, almost forgetting to breath, as if even such a subtle sound as a breath might call Chisel's attention to her. Never mind that the surrounding wildlife has already told on Meri, a detail the blonde had never really thought to consider. What snitches! Chisel's words ring out and Meri has the answer to her question, that would be a resounding no. The marionette at this point in time did not seem hostile and so Meri pressed her chances and risked a conversation, "Ah, to be fair I am not actually attempting to hide, at least not well. Though I would be lying if I said that it did not cross my mind to try and get up and duck behind this tree..." Could Chisel make the trees grab at people like she made the roots consume the carcas? Meri was suddenly feeling less comfortable and relaxed in her surroundings, maybe tonight was not the night to try and clear her head in the solitude of the forest. Mistrust for Chisel was still high despite the lack of hostility. "There is a saying that people often fear what they do not understand." Meri was not normally inclined to admit fear, even if it was a perfectly normal and reasonable emotion, but it seemed fitting in this situation. "I was otherwise just trying to enjoy a night of peace...Minding my own and meaning no harm."
"Hmm.. Fair enough." She replied but never really turned to look. Soon enough she reached upon the lantern and instead hanged it on a clip that is bound on her belt before finally covering it with thick fabric. The lantern is still shining light onto her body but now the whole forest is enveloped in darkness. "And now for the finale..." she whispered as her voice seems to fade away into the void. Dib blue lights began to glow within the forest, Chisel have been working on these seedlings that she found from the Larket Gardens. spreading them across the forest whenever she walks through them. Midnight Flowers, a type of plant that only blooms at night, using the energy that it has consumed earlier that day, the flower blooms and emit colors at night. As the lantern was hid out of sight the flowers realized it was already night and began blooming, illuminating the whole forest. "Beautiful isn't it?" Sitting on a branch, a tree across Meri. There was no warning and yet here she is. "The flowers are sensitive and tend to change its color depending to numerous factors." From afar she could see a predator hiding amongst the bushes, it was because the flower has turned orange at that area. "Don't you worry... well I guess you should. But you are still living, yes? That means you haven't done anything wrong yet. I would have known."
Don't worry, she says. You are still alive she says. That means you have done nothing wrong. Yet. Those words replay in her mind, a few expletives thrown in there for color and because Meri was silently berating herself. This felt like some sort of judgement. Thankfully her answer was an honest one, Meri was just here minding herself and doing no harm. Hopefully that 'yet' would not come to pass. It takes a moment for the woman's vision to adjust once the light of the lantern was hidden but she could soon see well enough to actually appreciate the night flowers, though how accurately she was making out their coloration was questionable. Human eyes were better suited for the light of day. "Yeah, quite lovely," she says, and while the comment is meant her mind is sort of stuck on other things, not the beauty of the flower. Chisel, please be a dear and confirm. "I shouldn't worry because I am still alive, implication being you could possibly try and kill me. But maybe will not provided that I do not do anything wrong....Am I understanding all of this right?" Meri's blue eyes are pretty intently focused on Chisel, not the flowers, not anything else surrounding her. She's not even aware of that predator off in the distance, hiding amongst the bushes. "So, tell me a bit about your perspective of wrong...What sort of things do people do wrong?"
"You are alive because you haven't done anything wrong. If you did something wrong, I would have known of it by now and we won't be having this conversation." Chisel still refused to look around. "A deer..." she pointed at a patch of the forest where a darker blue light is emitting, most likely because the forest critter is sleeping. Turning her head as the bush where the predator is hiding keeps on fading from orange to red, trying to seize its opportunity. "These forest tend to have bandits hiding within them, setting up camps, burning the earth either for base building or fun. Other travellers respect these lands however but there are some who are simply too rude to allow them to continue breathing." Chisel swings her legs a bit before finally turning her head toward Meri. Her eyes were... dead. Her face even, a bland facade of a doll looks onto her, tilting her head a bit. "This forests are my territory and since I claimed it, there are no more bandits." a creepy smile stretched against her face before falling forward into the earth below. Inches before hitting the ground numerous vines tightened up halting her fall before finally letting her stand on her own. "It is dangerous out here in the forest. You should stick onto the light... or go to the nearby cities."
Red lips are pressed together thoughtfully, the repetition in Chisel's answer vague but serving as subtle confirmation to the question Meri was voicing. A deer, Meri's gaze reluctantly follows after where Chisel is pointing. There was a different hue emitted in the area that the deer resides versus the predator but since the predator was not specifically called to her attention -- oblivious. Words fall past red lips as the tattooed woman moves to stand, boots falling lightly against the earth as she moves closer to one of these night flowers, a patch nearest to where she and Chisel are. It is in this motion that Meri misses that creepy smile that spreads across the marionette, but out of the corner of her eye she can see that the forest spirit almost face plants into the earth. Meri is about to turn to try and help her but she is slow on the draw. Chisel and the vines are far quicker than Meri, thankfully. Prior course of action is resumed with Meri falling to a crouch, reaching out to try and lightly touch the petals of the night flowers. Yes they were emitting colors into the night but Meri was trying to figure out the actual color of the flowers themselves. It is her index finger she uses to touch the petal. Well, more like she let her finger brush beneath a single petal with the hope that the contrast of the flower petal against her skin could help her mind sort out the color. "I suppose that if you have claimed this territory for yourself that you do not spend much time in the cities do you? The whims of man," the term is used rather liberally, she is not just referencing humans, "can be just as dangerous as the wilderness. Perhaps more in ways. Usually out here it is a matter of defense and survival. That being said, I could spend my life living in fear. Don't go here, Meri. You should not do that, Meri. Better if you stuck around there, Meri. Or maybe I could just...acknowledge that it likely does not matter what I do. My time will be up at some point. I would rather just live."
"The will of men mean little to the forest, even after the destruction of civilizations, the forest will continue to live. The world could be destroyed or poisoned but it will regrow after a while, only men would be placed in jeopardy really..." She smiles alittle as she touches one of her plants again. "I actually live amongst the mortals... Larket.. only because there is a garden there, quite a beautiful place in fact but very few visits there. It holds countless amounts of flowers from different locations and species. There is a sealed off section where the dangerous ones are kept. That's where I live." She listened further as she replied, "What you do with your life is your choice, anybody's comment or reaction to it mean little. As I heard a man once said, If you have a bag of a hundred gold and a thief stole a coin, would you throw out the whole bag? Then why allow a single ruined day dictate your whole life?" She quietly sat down for a sec before pulling out her lantern before her. The light began shining again and the nearby midnight flowers thought it was morning. "I may have claimed this land but I have also claimed numerous forests around this place, its quite time consuming, exhausting really, having to patrol all of these locations everyday."
Meri ponders this, would the forest live on even after the world is destroyed? I guess that may very well depend on how the world is destroyed and Meri's mind spins a few different scenarios that the artist opts to keep to herself. "Exactly. What I do with my life is my own choice but you do make a point with that saying." Not that Meri viewed what she was doing as throwing away her life, as Chisel said she was still alive which meant she was not causing trouble, presumably in the forests. "So, we have established that you live in Larket but have claimed numerous forests for yourself, patrolling them for bandits, planting wildlife." Taking care of dead animals, in a way it was unsettling that Chisel seemed to control the earth well enough that it could swallow something whole but in many ways it seemed perfectly fitting. When the light from Chisel's lantern became visible again and the night flowers retreated from it, Meri returns to her belongings and begins to gather them up. Ultimately Chisel was right and Meri would need to be returning to civilization. The artist was not in a hurry, more words come. "What we have not established is basic things like...Who are you? What are you?" Meri was not an expert on the manner of creatures that could be found in this land. "My own name is Meri." What she is, that is not offered up because is it not obvious?
Chisel does not need to look, her wooden body mean little, she has doll eyes but one could doubt it can even see. She is a spirit afterall, connected and communicating to the flora around her in ways mortals cannot fathom. Every flora is her eyes and ears. "An artist... and yet you did not draw anything. Did my presence distracted your focus?" Not that she cares but as much as she enjoys peace, she would not steal it from someone elses. "Chisel.. that is what I am called. I am a forest spirit and I lost my proper physical form centuries ago. What you are seeing right now is a mere marionette that I puppeteer to allow me to interact with the world around. You may have heard of me... I am the Murderous Doll of the forest... but that was before.. or now, if you know how to awake it that is." She smiles at the woman creepily once again. "I have nothing to offer if I have indeed distracted your art. Gold mean so little to me that I don't think any amount would be enough to compensate for lost time. You mortals have so little of it and no amount could repay the time already wasted."
Meri looses a bit of a chuckle at the turn this conversation takes. With all that Chisel has informed her of, it really comes as no surprise that the marionette is aware of Meri's artistic block. The selfish woman in Meri is tempted to take the marionette's offer for gold, despite the fact that the forest spirit in no way disrupted Meri. The sketchbook, since put away, was not even originally pulled out because she was working on a project to make her money. Could the plantlife of the land inform Chisel of that? The wiser woman in Meri decides against this course of action, the marionette's words about how she is still alive because she has not made any trouble still echo firmly in the woman's mind. It was the honest path that Meri would take this time, not that she was above a lie or two. "You actually disrupted nothing. I came out here to try and clear my head, plate has been rather full lately." Her gaze flits over the night flowers thoughtfully. "If anything you have perhaps given me some inspiration for a picture. Though it is late and I can hardly see what I am drawing anymore. And I only brought my black charcoal with me today. But perhaps next time our paths cross I will have a little gift for you." It is not so unlikely, Meri brings that sketchbook of her's just about wherever she goes. "Perhaps I will bring it to the garden in Larket that you spoke of. But for now, I should vacate the area and find myself a room for the night. It was a pleasure not being murdered by you, Chisel."
"A visitor.. a rarity you'd be then. I'm not exactly sure if my garden has the beauty that you seek. Art is much like a person's perspective and differs from one to another. Mortals may enjoy the extravagant cities they have built but for a forest spirit such as myself? Those are simply rubble glued together." She covers the lantern once again and placed it by her hip. "I am usually at the Larket gardens by the morning till mid-day before I go on my 'rounds' I tend on my plants early but there are always time to either take care of trespassers or look after visitors." She turned and began to wave at the woman, once again her arm felt lifeless, the vines from the tree above kept on moving back and forth as if something else is controlling her. She did say she is about to leave, Chisel barely understood how mortals interact to one another. This is how she is supposed to respond regarding her notes.
"Perhaps I could draw inspiration from the garden, perhaps not. I won't know until I see the place," which will happen in good time, after completing the Chisel-inspired piece of art. The manner in which Chisel waves is noted, with the assistance of the vines, but Meri has been witnessing these oddities for the duration of their conversation and has not run away screaming in fear and based on the close of their conversation, that would not be happening this interaction. Tattooed hand is lifted and that wave is return, Chisel must not have been too far off base with her notes on appropriate human social interactions. "I will see you soon, I will stop by Larket some morning to pay you a visit." Visitors are always nice, especially if you don't have to kill them, right? Meri is comfortable enough with her interaction with Chisel that she is actually willing to turn and walk away, no feeling that the doll might try and come after her when her back is turned. Her path through the forest is set to take her into the nearby town of Kelay.