[un: sprite bulb] voice;

[bearshermark]

[An aggrieved breath brushes through Eleven's crystal. He sounds tired and annoyed in the moment, as though speaking directly to someone of something]

I'm trying to grow things, here.

For Goddess' sake, I only just planted this patch yesterday.

[He sighs, temper easing, though his voice remains underscored by a thread of tension]

..Has anyone found anything about the dark waters? How to remove them or purify them or.. something. I've been working around them much as I can, but something will surely need to be done to clear it up if this village is going to thrive after we've gone.

[He's going to leave one place better than they found it okay.

..Maybe. Hopefully]

Comments

un: eclipse | audio

[soloritur]

Yeah, about that. [ He hasn't really spread this around yet. Maybe he didn't realize that it was still a problem elsewhere. ]

We saw the dark water in the cornfields. It seemed to be coming from a tree. [ There is so much more to that story, but he doesn't want to freak him out. ] I don't know there are more trees like it, but if you're going to go looking for them, don't go alone. There was something very wrong going on with it.

[bearshermark]

[He's suddenly very interested]

A tree? What tree? ..I might be able to talk to it.

[soloritur]

[ Don't sound too hopeful, El. It gets much worse. ]

Ah. We destroyed it. I think it might have been trapping people inside it. For a long time. [ ... ] After that, the water in the fields dried up in a few hours.

If there are others out there...

[ He can't imagine how many hundreds of people were lost, but God help them. ]

[bearshermark]

Destroyed..?

[He sounds crestfallen for a moment, but it tapers off as Marcos goes on. Trapping people. How terrible]

What did it look like?

[soloritur]

It was white, almost skeletal, and the roots were dripping with the water.

[ Now he's worried he's going to go looking anyway, so he reluctantly shares more. ]

The tree would have done the same to us, El. If you see one, you can't go anywhere near it. Even the water isn't safe to be around.

[bearshermark]

A tree of death?

[He falls quiet a few moments]

Was the water infecting animals?

[soloritur]

I didn't see any animals in the field, but when we were walking through it, we were attacked by the plants and vines and... what felt like hands grabbing for us. [ He doesn't know for sure, but after seeing the tree, they might have belonged to the people trapped inside it. ]

It spread anywhere the water seeped into the ground. I don't want to think about what might happen if you drank it.

[bearshermark]

Anduin says animals were corrupted by drinking it, but that the effects faded once the dark water was blocked. That it even affected vines and such..

But if you destroyed that tree and the dark water is still here, then either there are more trees or.. or something else.

[soloritur]

I believe it. It seemed to impact anything around it, and if it spreads... Either something is making them, or feeding them, but I don't know why aside from how cursed everything is here. We didn't get many answers.

Killing the tree did get rid of it in the field, but it's risky to try and find another source. I haven't seen another tree like it since, but I haven't gone looking either.

[bearshermark]

[It does sound dangerous, but of course it is]

I have.. something of an affinity for plants. I don't know that I could track the source through communion, but I haven't tried.

..Worst, I'll take Hendrik.

[soloritur]

[ See, this is what he was afraid of. Now he's going to go look for another tree of death, and it would be his fault. ]

...How close do you have to be to communicate with them?

[bearshermark]

Usually I'm right next to them, but I have a sense for the plants around me. I haven't really tested my range as such.

[soloritur]

Are you sure you want to?

[ This is usually where he'd volunteer to go with him, but... ]

It just seems like we can't solve one problem without more popping up. Who knows how many are out there?

[bearshermark]

[Eleven hesitates, then falls quiet for a good minute]

I've.. if I can't do this, then I don't know.. [He clears his throat] I have to try.

[soloritur]

[ El... Marcos still would rather he stay away, but he recognizes his determination. ]

You feel responsible because of your power?

[bearshermark]

..It's something like that.

It feels like a problem I should be able to solve. If I can't, then it might be that I don't have a purpose here after all.

[soloritur]

[ That's something he relates to a little too well; wanting to find meaning to why they're here. He's worried he's losing sight of that every time they leave somewhere worse than before they came.

He's still not sure this is a good idea, but he knows his curse is getting worse. It won't fix itself if he doesn't try. ]

Let me help. I can at least point out what to look for.

[bearshermark]

I'd appreciate it. I think we should be able to manage well.

[soloritur]

[ ...He's not sure he emphasized the danger enough. He still feels lucky they got away from it once. ]

Have you seen anything like it before?

[bearshermark]

[Things are always dangerous. He has a tank]

Hm. Of a sort. Not quite as much as what it sounds like you found.

[soloritur]

How close?

[ What do you normally talk to trees about? ]

[bearshermark]

In the forests of Sa-Hareth, I managed to commune with a tree spirit that felt like death and rebirth. It was cold, and stole my warmth for the trouble of.. impressing upon me that it had absorbed the energies of those born and dying around it over centuries.

[You know, #justtreethings]

[soloritur]

[ Here he was naive enough to think he'd found the only evil soul-sucking tree. That's more than a little alarming, for all of them, but especially for Eleven. ]

Somehow I missed hearing about that. What happened after?

[bearshermark]

Nothing, that I recall. I was able to warm up again after awhile thanks to help from a few people. I don't think the tree appreciated me bothering it, but I'd learned what I wanted.

[soloritur]

[ Rubbing his face. Okay. So the tree was justified because he bothered it, that's something he can get his head around. ]

I guess they're not a problem until they get aggressive. [ Or the water influenced it and turned it bad? He really has no idea. ] You know I'm not going to take its side if you can't reason with it.