[Open] Dead flowers for the torn apart

[pricklybloom]

🧙 WHO: Amy Rose and YOU
⚔️️ WHAT: Catch-all for October. Recent events have brought up some bad memories for Amy, so she's keeping herself busy to try and keep her mind off things. It only kind of works.
🕒 WHEN: Throughout October
🗺️ WHERE: Ruins of Celliwig and Camelot
⚠️ WARNINGS: Possible mentions of death, war, and (robot) zombies. Because this is a children's franchise.

A. Task: Don’t Lose Your Head

[ She knows that she should be paying attention to her task, but Amy Rose can't keep her eyes from wandering over what's left of Celliwig. She could argue that she's keeping a look out for the Headless Horseman, to protect the volunteers in case he tries to attack again. Yet as she looks at the city's ruins - seeing the leftover destruction, watching as the survivors have to retrieve their dead - all she can think of is the diaster around them. How they failed.

She failed. It keeps happening.

Gripping the handle of her hammer, she shakes her head and releases a shaky breath. Can't focus on the past. Pick yourself up, and move on.

She's failed before. But she won't fail now. She'll keep these people safe.

What's left of them. ]

B. Not Quite a Puppy Parade

[ She'd hoped that the Pet Adoption Fair would be a little less intense, and it does help to a degree. It's hard not to smile when you're surrounded by cute animals, especially the capybaras that are so friendly.

Yet somehow it's the fae frogs that she finds herself drawn to. She isn't really much a frog person herself, honestly, and with her room at the inn already so cramped with her new roomate, she can't imagine having much room for any pet. But despite their attitude, she keeps coming back to the frogs and chatting with them a bit.

Because she can't help thinking back to a certain frog back home, wondering if he might sound like this if he could talk. Perhaps to others...but certainly not his best friend.

The friend always in constant search of him...traveling everywhere just to find him.

She hadn't known...she never even realized. She thought she'd seen him at HQ once, but she hadn't been paying attention. He was her friend too, but she hadn't even thought to think about him. She had no idea, until... ]

C. Training

[ Even with her busy schedule - taking on a quest, volunteer work, helping with the survivors, on top of her classes and her job - Amy still has time, makes time, for training.

She attacks the wooden dummies with some combination of using her hammer, hand-to-hand combat, and her dark magic. Her shadow seems to ripple with each strike against her immobile opponents, each hit somehow landing harder than the last, despite her strength obviously waning.

But she doesn't let up. She can't.

She strikes the dummy in front of her again, her hammer laying forgotten on the ground for the moment as her boxercising instincts kick in. She punches and kicks the training dummy, and her shadow moves out of sync from her, merging with the dummy's and choking it.

It's not enough. It's never enough!

Her shadow spikes through the dummy as she punches it, sending splintered wood flying everywhere. Stepping back, she takes a few ragged breaths as she looks at the destroyed object in front of her, then down at her hand. Some of the wood had ripped the material of her glove, revealing patches of the torn skin underneath.

She winces as she clenches her injured hand into a fist, but a moment later her hand is surrounded by light. It glows for a long moment, and when it fades she checks to make sure the injury is gone. Then she wipes her brow and reaches down to pick up her hammer. ]

D. Wildcard

((Feel free to catch Amy elsewhere! She'll be out around Camelot, or at the inn helping the survivors, or working her job at the Helleste Café. Or hit me up at usamichan13 to plot something else if you'd like!))

Comments

Training

[phoenixwiz]

(It has been a rough few weeks since the terrifying events during the Fall Equinox. While it was definitely good that he was able to help in getting Lestari’s citizens to safety and bandaged up a couple of them, Harry wasn’t prepared to hear the news of Celliwig’s demise some time after the rescue missions were done. Hearing the news hit him hard and he soon found himself feeling quite sorry for the fallen city. As mixed as his feelings towards Celliwig can be, he doesn’t want to see it be destroyed.

The destruction and loss of life over there has reminded him too much of the war in Hogwarts: spells flung from both sides, the castle being reduced into rubble, the immense loss of life, and many people being altered by the experience. Sure, his side won in the end, but they also lost many lives and he had lost friends and allies too.

He is also at the training grounds, trying to keep his mind away from thinking back on the memories as he practices elemental magic on some dummies. Rose and Hedwig are also feeling down as they look on in morose. Trying to fight back the memories as he concentrates on the dummy in the middle with his eyes closed, he soon finds himself feeling electricity flowing through his arms and into his fists, raises his arms, and proceeds to shoot bolts of electricity at the dummy, singeing it in the process.

When he opens up his eyes again, he sees how burnt the dummy got by his newly unlocked electricity magic but he didn’t know how to respond to this new achievement at this time. Honestly, he might be feeling so numb today.)

[pricklybloom]

[ The hum of electricity behind her sends a chill down her spine, and she snatches up her hammer, poised for attack as she turns around. But seeing a familiar face stills her, and with a sigh she lowers her weapon. ]

Oh, uh...hey, Harry.

[phoenixwiz]

(Whoops! That electrical singeing did caught Amy’s attention and he is sweating as he rubs his hand against his neck and tries to explain himself about what had happened to the dummy he just burned.)

Oh, Amy, hi. You see, I was doing some elemental magic target practise with some training dummies when I, um, well, shot some electricity onto that dummy from my hands. So I just unlocked a new element to play with.

[pricklybloom]

[ Glancing over at the electrocuted dummy, she laughs a bit. ] I see. Well, congrats on getting a new element.

Besides, I can't really talk about damaging these dummies. [ She gestures to the dummy she'd been practicing on...or whatever's left of it. ]

[phoenixwiz]

Oh, you smashed that other dummy into pieces?

(Granted, the training dummies usually get replaced with new dummies at the end of the day after taking plenty of hits and attacks, though the damages can vary from person to person. Singeing dummies does produce different results compared to smashing up dummies.)

It looks like you have some hand to hand combat experience. That is pretty impressive, I got to admit.

[pricklybloom]

[ She rubs the back of her head, a little embarrassed. ] Yeah. Guess I need to work some things out.

To be honest, I've only really started practicing hand-to-hand combat when I got here. I have some friends who've been teaching me. Usually when I fight I use my hammer. [ She hoists the large hammer over her shoulder. ]

[phoenixwiz]

That’s really kind of them to teach you a couple of moves.

(And yes, he did see the hammer and is in awe of its size and how she is able to carry it around with her. Rose is also distracted by its size as well as she squeaks hyperactively while partly annoying Hedwig by accident.)

Wow, that is a large hammer you have in your disposal. What’s it like to use it in a fight if I may ask?

B

[sos_pilot]

Everything okay there, Ames?

[ There's a bit of a friendly hair(?) ruffle on Amy's head, followed by Della's sympathetic smile. ]

... You, uh, no offense, you don't look like everything's okay.

[ The girl looks ready to burst into tears! ]

[pricklybloom]

[ She jolts, startled, and turns to Della with a brief look of panic until she recognizes the woman, and she forces herself to relax. ]

Oh, Della! I, uh... [ It takes her a moment to remember where she is, and she puts on a small smile. ] Y-Yeah, I'm fine. I was just...homesick, I guess. These frogs make me think of a friend back home.

[ Which isn't technically a lie. ]

[sos_pilot]

Huh. They remind me of a luck vampire.

[ Granted, she wasn't there, but from the description the boys told her, it was pretty apt.

Focus, Della. ]

... What's your friend like?

[pricklybloom]

[ She blinks, but decides not to ask. She can't really comment on weird stuff, after all. ]

Well, uh...his name is Big the Cat. He's...well, big. [ She laughs a little. ] And he has a friend frog named...Froggy. [ Real creative choices here, she knows. ] Froggy isn't a talking frog, so some people might think of him more as Big's pet, but...they're definitely more best friends than anything.

[ She'd have made that assumption before too, but nowadays she couldn't say Froggy was Big's pet frog any more than she could say Cheese was Cream's pet Chao. ]

And Big is...well, he isn't the...brightest person around. He and Froggy like to spend most of their days fishing in their home in the forest. But he's nice, and he's dedicated to his friends. Froggy tends to run off and get lost, and Big is always searching for him to make sure he's safe and bring him home.

[ She smiles a bit wistfully. ] Big is usually pretty laid back, but...there was this one time he and I were traveling with another friend of ours, Cream. Big had lost Froggy, of course, and Cream had lost her Chao's brother, and so we were searching for them together. And we came across these guys who...they weren't bad or anything, but there was some kind of misunderstanding, and Big got very protective over us because he thought the other guys were picking on us and teasing us. I think that's the only time I'd ever seen him get angry before.

[sos_pilot]

[ In turn, Della wants to ask if A) these are real names and B) the hell is a chao, but can sense Amy needs to talk about home. So, Della nods along, still smiling. ]

Seems like the gentle giant type - who will only get rough when his friends are in trouble. Sounds like he's a really great guy.

[pricklybloom]

[ With a small laugh, she nods. ] Yeah, he's a pretty nice guy, and strong too.

[ Her smile fades a bit as some of the guilt starts creeping back in. ] He's so easygoing...and despite his size, it's easy for him to get lost in the background.

Lose Your Head

[ringsthatbind]

[Amy isn't the only hedgehog helping out with Celliwig, although Shadow isn't just there to protect volunteers. He's also helping while keeping an eye out for the headless horseman, using his strength to help with moving rubble so that it's easier to find anything (or anyone) in the rubble.

It's while doing this that Shadow notices out of the corner of his eye a familiar pink hedgehog, who he is going to approach.]

It's surprising to see you here.

[That's the only warning she'll get of his approach.]

[pricklybloom]

[ She's a bit startled, mostly because she'd been so lost in her own thoughts. But seeing him gets a small, if a bit of a wane one. ]

Is it? I just wanted to help out.

[ringsthatbind]

I see.

[Shadow is kind of, used to this kind of thing. Or at least he's better at not letting such things as death and destruction get to him.]

You're guarding them, right? [Since he's got a hunch Amy wouldn't want to be helping haul out the dead, or finding them.]

[pricklybloom]

[ She nods. ] Yeah. Just keeping them safe, in case the Headless Horseman shows up.

[ Unfortunately, the death and destruction don't even bother her as much as it used to. It was partially why she volunteered to help, but...it wasn't exactly this destruction that was distracting her right now. ]

[ringsthatbind]

Ah yes, that.

[The other reason he was here as well, that and he needs to do something to keep his mind off of other things. Nothing to do with the state of Celliwig, but with the state of his no longer here teammate Rouge.]

Perhaps we'll get lucky and it won't show up today.

[pricklybloom]

Maybe.

[ She doesn't sound too hopeful, especially since the Horseman seems attracted to all the death and destruction. But it's nice to think that. ]

Wildcard

[all_the_aangles]

He tries to help survivors wherever he can, really - he's spent his time here avoiding conflict, but the idea of not helping would be...well, it wouldn't be what the Avatar was. And it wouldn't be what Aang was.

He makes and brings a frankly enormous amount of tea for people, getting them food when they need. When he sees Amy, he is carrying two buckets on his staff across his shoulders, filled with potatoes.

"Oh, hello Amy."

Appa floats near behind, a bag of further potatoes strapped to him. Aang's familiar, a tiny fairy, is carrying a single potato.

[pricklybloom]

She had been lost in her own thoughts, that his voice startled her a bit. She does manage a smile when she sees him, though, as faint as it is.

"Oh...hey, Aang." Noticing the buckets he's carrying, she gestures to them. "Need some help?"

[all_the_aangles]

"I am," he replies, but he sets down the potatoes, hearing the tone of her voice.

"Do...you?"

[pricklybloom]

She pauses, staring at him a moment. How obvious had she been?

"I, uh...I'm not sure what you mean," she tries with an embarrassed laugh.

[all_the_aangles]

Not terribly so. But he's got a lot of experience in these things. And thousands of years of Avatars behind him to teach him empathy and how to see when others need help.

"Burdens are better shared," he said, gently enough. "If you don't already have somebody to talk to, I would be happy to listen."

[pricklybloom]

"I..." She tries to keep up the cheerful act, but it doesn't hold for too long. Then she sighs a little and glances away. "It's...kind of tough to talk about," she finally replies.