isleofavalon | All Alone, Stand Alone

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All Alone, Stand Alone

🧙 WHO: Belgium and EVERYONE
⚔️️ WHAT: Pumpkin Mayhem quest and café things.
🕒 WHEN: Early October
🗺️ WHERE: Trappist Café (Camelot)
⚠️ WARNINGS: Themes involving depression and sentient pumpkins

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Koninkrijk België!

Out of all the things… Belgium wasn’t expecting this to be quite as troublesome as it was. She was at least mostly healed up thanks in part to the healing mages present and a bit of bed rest. Still she had an arm in a sling, and one of her legs currently in a boot, crutch in one hand. She’s been through worse, something she was using to keep powering through. Even as the phantom pain from her broken ribs spiked up every now and then, making breathing ever so slightly difficult. Her chest was still bound up to make breathing easier and keep her ribs from falling apart.

Right, pumpkins!

This was probably right up her alley and the easier quest to achieve. Normally she would hold up in her café while the locals she hired were busy helping with the influx of newcomers, or to deal with friends and loved ones. But she needed to get out of there and have a bit of fun herself. Currently she was flanked on either side by a pair of golems, their heads a pair of grinning, jack-o’-lanterns. Both of whom were currently keeping a few of the flying pumpkins at bay as Belgium concentrated on sending up vines as whips to grab hold of any that strayed to close to them.

Unfortunately, a few of said vines may also grab onto any unlucky passerby as well…. This was taking a lot of concentration to keep them all under control! Please help her out? Or maybe be the cause for her to lose control?

Pastry Mountain and Goose Dishes!

She wasn’t really paying attention to how much she was making at this point, Belgium just… had to do something. Belgium had been here for a little while now, and the general separation of all she knew, everyone she knew, was catching up to her quickly. While she had managed to keep things on the down-low for a bit now. Recent events had brought them all to the forefront. So she busied herself, busied herself with preparing the geese she’d caught last month.

Busy overfilling the front counter of her little shop with pastries that were bound to go to waste if she didn’t hurry up and sell them, or worse donate them at a loss. Busy, with controlling the vines in lieu of employees. This was all fine though, she also wasn’t a stranger to work like this. The EU wasn’t going to run itself after all! And who would take her place…?

“Ah--! Welcome, I’ll be with you in a moment!”

She’d nearly missed the sound of the bell to café’s entrance open.

Last Call

It was late now, so very late. The baked goods had all either been sold or given away. Normally Belgium would have closed up shop a few hours ago and went home, or somewhere else. But she stayed open, a few pints of beer on the counter next to herself as the dull light of the café lit the room up. She put up all the chairs except those at the bar, sure. But she’d left the sign out front as open. The day’s expenses ran through her head, the expenses that brought on the face her brother, her people. What would he say in this situation, or do? Probably the opposite of what she was doing.

Belgium leaned back in her chair, the smell of cooked goose wafting itself out of the kitchen and towards the store front. Soft, warm, delicious, and welcoming. The final dish of the day was almost ready. Her face was flushed from the alcohol, and a few vines clumsily went about putting away a few glasses. Faintly she hummed a tune to herself that progressively grew louder. Something to cheer her up, to keep her occupied when there was not much else to do so.

Her lion sat near her feet, asleep.

She should be asleep now. But she wasn’t, there was that… something inside of her that kept her awake. She took another drink of her beer. She knew what the feeling was, of course, but that knowledge only left a lingering feeling of a pit in her stomach.

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[ Izutsumi felt her feet leave the ground in a skitter of claws against road dust. ]

Hey! Let go of me!

[ What was up with this place? Its creepy lit gourds, its baffling smart phones... she bit and clawed and the vine that had snagged her around the middle, her tail a stiff, white-tipped, angry bottlebrush. WHY THIS. ]

[Unfortunately for Izutsumi they're still plant vines. So biting and clawing is probably only going so far. And might leave a nasty taste in her mouth....

Luckily Belgium's not that far away and could still hear her? Unfortunately that also means a break in her concentration.]

A-ah--! Hang on, sorry, but hang on! I can make them stop in just a moment!

[She thinks and tries to get the vine to let go... only for it stiffen up and harden, still holding onto Cat! At the very least they're unlikely to eat her?? Also one of those hulking, pumpkin golems are getting closer.]

Edited 2021-10-13 20:06 (UTC)

[ 'Hang on'... that was a good one! It was all she could do to hang on as the vine suddenly seemed to gain extra zip in its whip. Suddenly, the world was upside down -- or hers was, anyway.

Something grabbed at her tail; Izutsumi twisted in surprise and anger, the arc of her spine a sudden snapping crescent. Her teeth bit midair into a renegade floating pumpkin with an enormous, twisty grin cut into its 'face'.

UNACCEPTABLE VEGETABLE MATTER. ]

[Whoa! That was a good catch! Better than her vines! Maybe she should just leave the cat-person attached to the vine and sort of... whip her around?

Or maybe not.

Well either way, she tries to regain concentration on controlling the vines... when another sprouts from the ground and starts to try and wrap around Izutsumi. Or rather the pumpkin she caught. Oh dear.... but hey, pumpkin golem to the rescue!

One of the hulking vine hands reached out to grasp the vines in question! Hopefully tye other woman doesn't freak out too much more?]

[ Izutsumi felt the slack in the vine; immediately, she was loose, landing crouched on the ground with the unlucky flying pumpkin still squarely gripped by her teeth and claws. ]

What... is this?

[ Though she did have to remove the teeth to talk. It was really unclear if she meant the vines or the pumpkin or the general situation here, but the point was this was all rather unsatisfactory for an adventurer who'd been on the prowl looking for her next meal.

This was too eerily close to the nonsense back home. ]

Oh, well that's a pumpkin.

[Said matter of factly. Currently the golem that was coming over grabbed the vines that were starting to reach out for Izutsumi. Or rather, the said pumpkin she had.]

Hm, but I guess when they're all carved up like that they're called jack-o-lanterns... Ah, but I'm sorry about the, well, vines....

[When all was said and done, Belgium looked quite embarrassed! It seems she might have over did things again.]

Edited 2021-10-16 04:28 (UTC)

Jack-o-who?

[ What was with these bizarre customs? Who would leave large, alarming vegetables around just to sneak up on innocent passersby? WHAT WAS THIS. ]

Are these all yours?

[ Was she holding Belgian's wayward demon pumpkin ]

Um, carved gourds and pumpkins.

[The whole traditions is a little odd on the surface, she'll admit. But it's always great fun to make them and see what others can carve!]

Oh, the vines and golems are mine. But the flying pumpkins aren't! Someone posted a job to get others to help catch magical pumpkins that got loose. Or somethin' like that.

[Something like that she said. But...!]

A-anyway, I had nothing to do with the flying gourds! But I am really sorry the vines grabbed you... it's a bit hard to keep track of them all at times.

Oh. [ A beat. ]

Is there a reward for them? [ Surely that was implied by the whole 'job' thing, right? After all, she wasn't a charity! Beastkin had to eat, too! And preferably, the good stuff -- if she never ate a monster again, then GOOD. ]

[ But then the woman was apologizing, which Izutsumi hadn't actual expected, and ] Well, if it wasn't on purpose. [ HOW MAGNANIMOUS. ]

A reward? Oh! Yes, they do offer payment for each pumpkin returned to the patch. But I think they need to be intact. If you were looking to make some ends meet.

[Unfortunately, while Smashing Pumpkins is a great band, actually smashing pumpkins in this case, is not great.]

But no, it absolutely wasn't on purpose. And I'm glad you're fine. [Ah heck yeah! Cat accepted the apology. She should feel GRATEFUL.] If you want I could make it up to you.

Make it up to me? How?

[ Now that had her attention. Maybe there were some tasty snacks to be had out of this situation. And so long as she didn't permanently damage the pumpkin she'd caught, that reward was as good as hers!

She only hoped this 'reward' wasn't anything weird. Her last bunch of traveling companions made her a little more wary of simply accepting. ]

I can always buy you lunch.

[And luckily, since this is Belgium and not Senshi or Laios. Which means! Good food is abound, and it's sourced from absolutely not sketch places! So there's that.]

And you can keep the reward for whatever you catch too!

[So she gets paid, and gets free food!]

[ This didn't sound like a bad deal -- not at all, in fact. ]

That sounds fair enough. But let's grab more pumpkins first, before they're all gone!

[ Look

look

it was important to grab free coin while the getting was good! ]

[Free food and easy money, what's not to like here? Obviously Izutsumi is going to be a rich cat for the month!]

Right! Oh and feel free to hand off whatever you catch to one of the golems. They can hold them for us.

[In the mean time Belgium directs her vines to snatch another demonic pumpkin from out of the air. Like. Whoa. With two people on the case things were going to be much, much more easy for sure!]

Are you sure? [ Izutsumi sounded a bit doubtful, having fought a golem once herself. They didn't seem particularly delicate, but... surely Belgium would compensate her if a golem ate her pumpkin or something. She had sort of a Tade vibe going on.

So she handed the jack o' lantern over, the better to stalk a new target. ]

You do plant magic?

[The golem's vine body wraps around the pumpkin and holds it in place. Rather gently too before it disappeared into its plant cage with the rest. Could be worse, could be like Senshi's golem gardens.

But calling her Tade-like might not be too far off. At least as far as the cheery bit goes.]

Yes. I mean not normally. But I guess I do plant magic here. How about you?

Truthfully, what had drawn Allura towards Belgium's location was the golems themselves. After all, what was she supposed to think? Camelot was already dealing with a ghoulish gourd problem, and with heads like those, it was reasonable to conclude that these were the next phase of the problem, and that things would continue to escalate if the vegetables were not brought back under control.

And so she had been running right towards one of the golems when some of the vines shot out towards her — and she was in prime position to dodge out of the way, doing a tumbling roll towards the side. Luckily, before she could counterattack, she could see that she wasn't the target at all. Instead, the vines had snared another pumpkin behind her, and was reeling it in like a fishing line.

"Are those ones helping us?"

Okay so yeah, perhaps she should have rethought the whole plant-golem design. But she was still really proud of them, dang it! It wasn't easy forming them out of vines like that you know! All that said she rushed over to Allura as she managed to avoid the oncoming vines.

Looking rather bashful as well. Even more so after the question. "The vines? Oh yes, and I apologize for that. I have a lot of them set up and it's a bit difficult to control each of them at once."

Perhaps she should have did some more practice beforehand. But with everything happening she did the need the extra moolah.

"No, I suppose it makes sense to use what's available—" Wait, hold on a tick. "Did you say a lot of them? How many did you make, exactly?"

And as she says it, the other golem shoots a vine her way. She ducks under this one, but can't help but notice that there's no pumpkin behind her to explain it. Is this what the woman meant by it being difficult to control them?

So, she tries to address the golem directly. "Excuse me... erm... my good pumpkin! I'm not your target! Or do I look like another pumpkin to you?!"

"Um... well it started off as just like a dozen. But vines grow really fast! And there was a lot of pumpkins. So... ya know."

She has no clue now.

"A lot?" Said golem though just sort of stares at her with candle-lit eyes. There's no expression because the face is carved. "Oh, but they can't actually hear you though. They don't have any ears after all... or brains!"

That's silly, they're made from pumpkins and vines after all! "Think of them like robots... or robotic collection bins! Just for pumpkins."

As she says that another vine bursts from the ground, springing upwards to snatch a passing pumpkin out of the air... and maybe poor Allura as well if she wasn't careful!

The good news is that she is quick and alert, and seems to have no problem twisting and dodging out of the way. But the bad news is that she needs to find some way out of this, and nothing seems to be presenting itself. At that point, it doesn't matter how good she is — it's only a matter of time before one catches her.

See, like that vine just now? It snags forearm, and pulls her down towards the ground. And while her first instinct is to yank her arm free of the vine, it doesn't seem to make much progress. Not at this angle, at least.

"Does that mean you can shut them down, too?! Because they seem to have it in for me!" How about unwinding it, or pulling it off? She gives that a try, before anything else takes advantage of her prone position to entangle her.

"I mean, they're plants." Ain't no shuttin' down foliage when foliage gets going. Cause a foliage party don't stop!

"B-but I can certainly get them to calm down! Just... give me a moment." A moment to concentrate, this was harder than it looked! She really could use a beer after this. But yeah, pulling and yanking really would only make it hold on tighter, the thing was trying to catch flying pumpkins after all. Relaxing and unwinding the thing seems to certainly help though.

Granted there was another vine going for a pumpkin above her. In fact there seemed to a fair number of the orange, terror gourds hovering above her, and just within her grasp. All mischievous and such. Belgium in the meantime, currently had her eyes closed, attempting to will the plants to stop catching random things!

"Plants aren't that different from technology!" This probably sounds like a weird, unfounded bit of nonsense to anyone who has never visited the planet Olkarion. It's also of no use in the situation.

Okay, if all the pumpkins have mistaken her for one of the mischievous jack o' lanterns, the least she can do is try to stop them from wrapping her up from head to toe. So when she sees an opportunity, she pulls the vines on her arm again, lifting the rope of plants up and over her head.

As a result, the vines wrap around each other in a tangle of vegetation. Are plants any good at untying knots? Hopefully it's challenging enough to give their creator the time she needs to settle them down.

She has absolutely never been to a planet that has cyborg plants on it. Or really any plants that could be controlled through a person's mind. Electronic or otherwise. She is, however, doing her darndest to try and feel out the vines that were going after Allura and the pumpkins. Reaching out and thinking calm thoughts to replace the whole "contain" thought process.

In the mean time, nope, they ain't good at untying knots! The poor plants are helpless as Allura tied them into submission. Unfortunately that might have doubled their attempts at trying to catch her!? Going to wrap around her legs and waist to restrain her. The golems in the meantime, kept close to Belgium, occasionally swatting at flying pumpkins.

"Hang on, almost there!"

"I'm trying! Unfortunately, they seem to be the ones hanging on to me!"

It doesn't even count as a pun. The idiom 'hang on' is one that she picked up from her Earth friends, and at times she still thinks of it in a fairly literal way.

What can she do? There's too many vines now to attempt to pry them off one by one. And pulling isn't much help, since she's not strong enough to break them. And if she wants to get stronger, she'll need something to siphon—

Right. She almost feels ashamed that she didn't think of this sooner. With her free hand, she grabs hold of some of the vines around her waist, and starts siphoning out the magical energy. It's not enough to make the golems revert back to their old selves, but it does make the vines start to wither back into normal plant vines at spots. And, more importantly, she can feel her muscles growing stronger — more than enough to start breaking the greenery at weak points.

It's not enough to bust out. Even without the magical energy, the plant fibers are strong and healthy, so it's less like she's snapping them and more like she's slowly shredding them. But it gives her a way to hold them off for a little longer.

"Please, hurry...!"

The siphon at least does it job in weakening them, and Belgium in the meantime slowly began to get a number of them to go back to being regular ground creepers. Soon Allura would find herself less and less overwhelmed by plant material.

"Just about got them...." Huff huff, things were also getting easier for Anri as well. With less plants to control it was easier to micromanage them all. Until, at length, all Allura had to worry about were five that were weakly clinging to her. And even those began to weaken and turn back to normal, seemingly harmless, vegetation.

"There! That's much better!"

As she exclaims it, she rises back to her feet, unhindered by the pumpkins still clinging to her. It's a little difficult walking like this, but she's going to try putting up with it, treading carefully. After all, this was probably easier than trying to carry all five pumpkins in her arms.

"We should start collecting these in one place to bring back. Do you have somewhere to gather them up?" As she says it, she reaches down to pull one off her leg that's hanging too low. Better to carry the one than risk stepping on it.

Belgium goes ahead and wipes a small amount of sweat from her forehead and adjusts her crutch. Phew, crisis averted! She'll have to do a bit more practice with increasing how much she can control at once. Later.

For now she just looked relieved that Allura was being wrapped in vines anymore. "Oh, yes! That's what the golems are for."

One of which goes ahead and extends a hand to accept said pumpkin. "I was using them as walking cages to safely carry as many as possible."

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All Alone, Stand Alone

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Koninkrijk België!

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Pumpkin Mayhem

Re: Pumpkin Mayhem

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