braavado: (Right in the heart of the city)
Korra ✿ 寇拉 ([personal profile] braavado) wrote in [community profile] thehometree2015-04-21 02:09 pm

[Closed]

| characters | Fuu & Korra

| date/time | 4/20, early afternoon

| location | by the quest mirror

| rating | pg

| summary | tentative friendships



With the mist limiting the space they could explore, there were only a few places that Korra made a point of visiting when she was feeling antsy. The branch that held the quest mirror was one such place, especially now that they knew another riddle had appeared. Two riddles, actually. Korra pulled her legs up to her chest as she sat in front of the mirror. Though she had liked working with everyone to solve the first riddle, she wasn't so sure they should jump at solving the new ones. What if they just led to even more trouble like the spiders? True, defeating the spider queen had freed the tree spirit in the end, but Korra couldn't help but wonder if the next one would be even more difficult to take down.

Stuck in her thoughts, Korra didn't immediately hear Fuu approaching until she was a little closer. She tensed, then relaxed when she glanced over her shoulder and saw who it was. "Hey," Korra greeted, not exactly surprised to see Fuu there. She was the first one to notice the riddle last time after all. "Came to see the mirror, too?"

monster_san: Content in a kimono (Old-fashioned tastes)

[personal profile] monster_san 2015-04-22 12:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Fuu smiled when she saw that Korra was already in the mirror room, contemplating their new challenges. "I did," she said, coming over and sitting beside Korra. The golden writing worried her... that second riddle was very dark, and the first didn't explain itself at all--it simply gave instructions without indicating what the results might be.

There were close to thirty new people, too, by Fuu's count. Counseling caution and patience wouldn't last very long. "Though I would rather know who's writing them before trying to solve it, given what happened with the spiders. That was a rather dangerous way to open up the fifth floor."

She was happy to have released the tree-spirit as well, but it had been very lucky that they hadn't paid a higher price for that.
monster_san: Concern / contemplative look (Serious matters afoot)

sorry for the late!

[personal profile] monster_san 2015-04-24 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes--I was prepared for one spider, not a hundred." Though she had spoken lightly her tone immediately grew more serious. "I'm honestly surprised that nobody died during that." Relieved, of course. But surprised.

She tapped her fingers on her chin. "Chime said she didn't put the riddle there herself. I think she was truthful--I don't think I could lie after days inside a spider's stomach." Not that Fuu would survive days in a spider stomach, or even being eaten in the first place, given that spiders usually turned things into soup before eating them... "And it opened another floor. Perhaps our riddler is on a high level of the tree."
monster_san: Look of WORKING THINGS OUT (My eyebrows and I are THINKING)

Re: <3

[personal profile] monster_san 2015-04-26 04:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Fuu glanced over at the small break in Korra's voice. Had she been a close call, or seen someone who was? Probably. She filed it back in her mind, unsure of whether she should pry into it yet.

"The tree itself..." Fuu cupped her face in one hand as she looked back towards the entrance to the mirror chamber, where the light stream was still visible. A living, sentient tree? That wasn't an unusual thing in stories, and this one certainly was magical. "I could believe that."

She thought about Sir Kyle's speculation, that it was their gems--or perhaps being shrunk in the first place--that was draining the Tree. But then would it make sense for the Tree to even bring them here? Perhaps the sacrifice of energy was necessary to prevent further disaster. "I don't know how the tree or the light looks when it's healthy... perhaps it's the mist that's affecting it. It's certainly nothing natural. Maybe we've been brought here to dispel it."
monster_san: Thoughtful look (I've been wondering)

Not to worry! It happens

[personal profile] monster_san 2015-05-06 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
"And the squirrels," Fuu said, nodding. "It seems like there's something about us that the mist is reacting to."

She sighed and gave Korra a rueful smile. "I have been keeping a mental list, but there are so many strange things, they tend to run into each other. I think that so many of us are fighters is deliberate. And the force that brought us can reach through different worlds, different times. Two large groups of people have been brought in about... a month apart, and both times it's numbered a few dozen. Maybe the Tree is just throwing people at its problems to see what works? Like throwing noodles at the wall to see if they're done."
monster_san: Concern / contemplative look (Serious matters afoot)

[personal profile] monster_san 2015-05-09 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
"It doesn't," Fuu agreed, with a faint little smile at the face that Korra made. Deliberately silly comparisons? She would never. "It's possible that Chime is lying or the full truth is something she can't convey in yes-or-no answers. But... a person can have immense power and still be helpless." Her hands clenched unconsciously. Helpless to love, for example... but also to things more physical, like a person laid low by tiny bacteria. "Maybe it's something that saps, and we have to fight it like--like the way the body's cells fight off germs."

She had almost said antibodies, but she didn't know how advanced medicine was on Korra's world. Magic and high science didn't seem to go together for some reason.
monster_san: Somewhat dismayed chibi (Ohhhhh dear)

[personal profile] monster_san 2015-05-16 09:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes, exactly. If the tree is ill, it might need us to heal it, either by fighting things like the spiders or finding the root cause and neutralizing it somehow." She cupped her face in one hand. "I wonder how I would put that on my resume--tree doctor, or tree vitamin?"

She knew that comment would probably get a groan out of Umi and Hikaru, and with them it would have sounded utterly sincere, but she kept her tone light this time.
monster_san: Happy and content (Let's have a happy day)

[personal profile] monster_san 2015-05-20 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Fuu laughed. "You're right, I don't want to do that. We'll consider ourselves very tiny arborists."

She stepped closer to the mirror, tracing the glowing letters with one finger. "If we're solving riddles to help it, I don't think the normal means apply--no pruning and pesticides. Crystal growths aren't a problem I've ever seen in the garden. I do know that crystals can be used as power or conduits in magic, though." Through fantasy stories, granted. But might that be the same here? And how else would a tree sprout such an abundant formation without some kind of magic?
monster_san: Thoughtful look (I've been wondering)

[personal profile] monster_san 2015-05-25 03:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"That's true. If it was hurting the tree, we would probably see sap or galls, or some other kind of wound. The cause may be higher up, then."

She tapped her fingers on her chin. "Hm... either the crystals grew after the houses were added, or whatever's responsible for the crystal growth deliberately left gaps." It brought Fuu back to the question of who had prepared the Tree in the first place, and if it had been made this way specifically for them, or if there had been previous residents who had gone for some unknown reason. "I still wonder if we were the first people here."

monster_san: Look of WORKING THINGS OUT (My eyebrows and I are THINKING)

[personal profile] monster_san 2015-05-27 07:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Fuu nodded. She wished she had managed to speak to the ants, but she'd watched a nature special about army ants in the Amazon once that left her quite reluctant to meet them at her current size.

"It was all very neat and tidy--not as though people had left in a rush," she agreed. "Possibly it was an orderly, well-planned evacuation, leaving houses full of furniture--possibly it was prepared for us in advance, but that still leaves why in either case." She drummed her fingers on her chin. "We should ask Miss Chime if there was anyone here before us."
monster_san: Thoughtful look (I've been wondering)

[personal profile] monster_san 2015-06-07 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
Fuu nodded in agreement, glad to see how determined Korra was. The origins and purpose of the tree were far more important than the riddles, in Fuu's mind, but there were a lot of challenges in the way of those answers.

"Indeed, communicating only with yes-and-no questions has its limitations. If we could figure out her language, perhaps she could give us clearer answers. But..." She considered for a moment. "The riddle said she was the servant of the Tree. I wonder how much she does know."