[muffled spooky scary skeletons playing in the distance]

[geonomy]

Who: You! Me! Everybody!
Broadcast: idk but we've sure got a pretty broad cast of folks eh, eh
Action: HECK YEAH PLANET MINGLE
When: 10/7 until plot update or recaptcha

It's a deep, deep forest filled to the brim with fungi, mysterious life forms, and pitch black darkness. Explore if you dare and discover all these things and more! Just don't get lost...

Comments

[poisoninmypocket]

[A. The Edges of the Trees]
[Monty's come down with some of his crew, but as much as he's keen to make connections, the allure of the forest of the green is too much. He's feeling absolutely invigorated for some reason. There had been a sound in his mind as they'd passed through the planet's atmosphere. People had called it a singing planet. Well, perhaps that's all it had been. At the moment, he's certainly in a merry mood for singing as he all but frolics through the edges of the wood in one of the clearings where several shuttles have set down.

His eyes are bright, his voice is clear, and there's a phantom orchestra that seems to have decided to join him for a backing.]

We're off on our way,
What a beautiful day
For a trip down to the planet.
How amusing,
How delightfully droll.
A trip down to the planet,
Treasures lurking
On our stroll.
A trip down to the planet
How enchanting,
In the forests so green
A trip down to the planet
With the bright sights
still unseen.

With the magic and the moment--
Did you notice that curious thing?
With the passage and the movements,
We'll be searching out ships while our voices all sing

For a trip down to the planet
So diverting
That one cannot lie down.
A trip down to the planet
Where I hope it's so good as it sounds!

[There's room here for someone to jump in with their own verse... or to simply yell at him for being peculiar. The gentleman in his three-piece suit is swept away into the moment, though, moving gracefully between the trees.]


[B. Into the Wood]
[It doesn't take too long before Monty runs across a piece of hull from some vessel or other. It's small and mostly disintegrated, but he stops to have a look at it and around it, humming to himself. He should probably be more concerned with the wood. Plant life in Between hadn't been terribly friendly for the past year and a half. But the flowers he's seen here don't move--thank god--and don't seem keen to eat him.

His ears catch the sound of someone else moving in the forest, and he stands from where he's crouched, trying to pry up a large sheet of metal to look around.]

I say, hello? Is someone there?

A?

[bythewaves]

[ Maglor never could resist a song, and he is drawn to Monty's as surely as to a lure. The voice that answers him is deep and curls with the echo of the trees (the problem with being hooked into the song of the world, you see, is that it hooks into you too) and the wind in the treetops sounds like waves. It isn't Monty's type of music, perhaps ]

Mountain and valley
And pasture and meadow
Streching unending
For mile after mile
Fenland and moorland
And shoreline and canyon
Bordered by Hurdle
And hedgerow and stile

See the road flow past your doorstep
Calling for your feet to stray
Like a deep and rolling river
It will sweep you far away

Just beyond the far horizon
Lies a waiting world unknown
Like the dawn its beauty beckons
With a wonder all its own


((ooc: lyrics by Howard Shore))

[poisoninmypocket]

[It might not be music that's familiar to Monty, but it catches his heart, and he'll harmonize, echoing Maglor, almost as if it's something they've practiced at together. As he sings, high tenor voice clear and bright, he's drawn toward the other man. When the song ends, Monty's standing in front of the elf. The gentleman is beaming and bows deeply.]

My dear fellow! I have not met someone who would sing so with the morning dew in some time. My name is Montague Navarro, but please do call me Monty.

[His heart is racing with exhilaration and there's a touch of blush to his cheeks. People who sing and don't simply look at him strangely are rare indeed.]

[bythewaves]

[ The answering smile is bright and equally pleased to find another in whose soul Music echoes, and Maglor bows, court formal ]

Well met, sir. And I assure you that the pleasure is mine. Maglor, at your service. You have an excellent voice.

[poisoninmypocket]

And you, yourself, in turn. A singing planet should ring with music, though, should it not? I'm surprised more people haven't felt the moment move them. I'm on the Heron, which ship might you be on, sir?

[bythewaves]

I would tend to agree, but not all folk can hear the Song - it brings me joy to find another who can. Do many, in your world?

And I am on the Huntress, sir.

[poisoninmypocket]

Everyone in my world can. [Monty raises a hand.] Honestly, it's been terribly peculiar to be out in a place where people--there was a young lady on the Iskaulit who found it strange, indeed. She acted as though she'd never been moved to music before in her life!

[bythewaves]

Some perhaps have not. [ Which is terribly sad his tone implies ] I spoke to one who knew only work and duty, and had forgotten all else til now.

[poisoninmypocket]

Work and duty are important, but I don't see how that could conflict. What a dreadful life to lead! [It really is sad.] Surely, there must be others in the fleet like us. Have you been with our company long? I'm new, myself. Relatively so, no doubt.

[bythewaves]

Nor I, but my situation is perhaps a little different.

Not long [ as Elves count time, anyway ]

Perhaps some five or six months, if I am any judge. But I am fortunate, for some of my kin are here also. I would bid you welcome, but tis a poor one, I fear, although not the worst, I suppose. Have you found friends here?

[poisoninmypocket]

I find this place far more pleasing than the one I left behind... in sheer bounty and life, if nothing else. And there is much more than that. Good company, well met. [Monty inclines his head to the other man.] And old friends found. There are two people I know from the last place I was. A chameleon named Espio. He's another very recent arrival. And a vixen dearest to my heart, Renart.

Have you chanced to meet either?

[bythewaves]

Was your home so terrible then? That is a pity. But ah... it sounds as if you were not home, before. Renart? I believe I met a lovely fox by that name, yes.

[poisoninmypocket]

My home was not a terrible place, no. I was stolen away from it before the Fleet and spent a year in a wasteland where everything was twisted with pestilence and cruelty. Even the plants could attack when they took a mind to it. Renart, Espio, and I were all there together along with more than a hundred other souls who arrived and faded from their very existence.

I'm not sure if you've seen it, but Renart does have a human form. [Just to make sure the man doesn't think he's in love with a literal four-legged fox.]

B

[bb_wolf]

[In the shadows of the trees, a pair of yellow eyes look out. They have no pupils and are set far apart, suggesting something big. Something predatory.]

You should be more careful. Forests can be dangerous. You never know what lies off the beaten track.

[poisoninmypocket]

[Well, that's not entirely ominous. Monty's gaze catches on the set of eyes, and he stares, heartbeat picking up. All of the other animals have run away in the forest so far, and none of them have seemed to be intelligent. The gentleman licks his lips, holding his ground for the moment. This might be one of the other Fleeters.]

I'm hardly a little girl in a red hood, or any babe in the wood. I know well what dangers may yet be, but perhaps you'd like to step forward and show me?

[And he'll just... surreptitiously prepare to leg it, if need be.]

[bb_wolf]

[There's a throaty, deep rumble of a chuckle and the shadow moves out into sight.

The darkness still clings to his fur and his often plush pelt seems, less smooth and polished, more wild. When they call him the Big Bad Wolf, it's because he's massive. Not for a wolf. He's massive compared to draft horses, give enough to comfortably bite a human in half in a single snap of his jaws.

His paws are silent on the forest floor, large and padded and heavily furred. His eyes don't so much glow as much as they have an inherent light to them that means that however dark it is, you can see those yellow eyes watching you.]

I ate the little girl in the red hood, when I was much, much younger.

[poisoninmypocket]

[Monty is not the bravest man in the multiverse, but nor is he a coward. The sight of the wolf sends a shiver of terror through him, though; his conversation isn't terribly reassuring, though. The gentleman swallows and manages to stop himself at just half a step back as he looks up at the Fable.]

Mr. Bigby, I presume. I'm Monty--Lord Montague. Navarro.

[His voice has jumped up half an octave and his eyes are wide and rabbit-like in their fear. He wonders if there's a human form for this creature. Surely he couldn't fit on a ship, otherwise.]

[bb_wolf]

Mr Wolf.

[To be correct about it. Bigby is his first name. He peels away from the forest a bit more, circling around the human. He smells of... Renart, actually.]

You're the human mate, then.

[poisoninmypocket]

[Monty turns with the wolf as he circles, the pirouette quite neat.]

I am. [Is that a challenge?] Renart's told me a great deal about you. I feel I must thank you for keeping her company here. [Look at him trying to get along with her friends! Her friends that he hopes are not romantic rivals.]

[bb_wolf]

[Were he to voice the idea, Bigby might actually laugh in his face.]

I haven't. We just happen to both enjoy freshly killed meat. She seems to enjoy the kidneys, I don't, so I tend to leave them for her.

[It's not a kindness, or friendliness. No. Clearly not. He's just an apex predator who doesn't want kidneys.]

[poisoninmypocket]

[Well, you've been keeping her company enough for her to mention you right before he's about to have her.]

How... charming. [That's gruesome, actually.] Might I inquire as to what you're looking for down here apart from fellow travelers to stalk? [That's, perhaps, a bit snippy when he's faced with a giant wolf who could swallow him whole, by the looks of it.]

I-I only mean to ask if there's something I can assist you with.

[bb_wolf]

[That's the reality of wild animals.

Bigby raises an eyebrow at the sudden show of spine. It looks slightly odd on a giant wolf. But he keeps circling.]

I followed the scent of Renart. She told me about you.

[If he sounds unimpressed, it's because he is.]

[poisoninmypocket]

She is a terrible gossip. Women, you know? [And Monty plants his feet and just holds his ground. He swallows as he follows Bigby more with his eyes than anything and tenses when the giant wolf passes out of sight behind him.]

I hope what she told you were pleasant things. She was most gracious in her description of you. [More or less... Monty recalls she told him not to cross the Big Bad Wolf.]

[bb_wolf]

No.

I don't 'know'.

[He's a Sheriff, listening to people gossip is a vital part of his information network. And they ALL gossip.]

... what are you doing if not gossiping, now?

[poisoninmypocket]

[Bigby, are you actively making it difficult to find something to relate on? Monty holds his frustration and fear down.]

Attempting to make conversation. If you've another topic, I am, of course, all ears for the Big Bad Wolf.

[Renart is going to yell at him for not just cowering, probably. If Bigby actually snaps at him, Monty may adjust his attitude.]