Juno: or Oh no, it's Him

[JunoZXV]

Name: Juno

Species: Nekomini

Age: That wonderful perpetual age of 20 something.

Gender: Male

Appearance: Pink hair, red eyes, faired skin, back cat ears and a black cat tail.

Personality: Bombastic and very very Alice in wonderland mad.

Traits: Mostly equipment based.

Resourceful: Usually has the right tool for the job. A vast collection of gadgets and arnaments for handing particular tasks for RP at hand.

Family: None to list

Known History: Blipped out in the timeskip.

How did your character find these lands?: He's been here the whole darn time you're about to find out where

Anything Else We Need to Know?: HE'S BACK


The southern edge of the forest, in a fairy ring undisturbed only inches off the forest floor. Lay a tiny village preserved with sprites, pixies and wraiths. Sheilded together, seperated from the events of Deep forest. Tonight the mushrooms of the circle are a-glow as the ring gets ready for-

*DING DING DING*

"In this cornaaaaahhh! Weighing in at a modest 2 grams is the pixie of power, crowd favorite, RAZOR-WING!"

There was a sea of cheers as the tiny pixie waved her arms and entered the arena, no bigger than a matchbox, on the other was her opponent, shrowded in dark smoke.

"And in this corner, hailing from the abyssal planes is her challenger, the SOULTAKER!"

Boos and hisses could be heard in the tiny circle, to anyone outside it'd just look like small ring of lit mushrooms glowing in the night air.

"The SOULTAKER is READY~" hissed the dark apperation as it stepped up to the ref.

"Im here to let the SOULTAKER know that its in for a world of doom. BECAUSE RAZOR WING is gonna deliver the pain ALL TOO SOON!"

More cheers from the farie folk in the ring. Tonight was going to be a good match.

"Alright, I want a good clean fight, and by fight I mean go at it." The ref announced

*DING!*

And the grapples went fighting.

"OH she's got it in a headlock!"

"PILE DRIVER! SOULTAKER'S GOING FOR THE PILEDRIVER!"

Then suddenly an interruption:

"OH MY STARS, IT'S JUNO WITH THE STEELWOOD CHAIR!"

[Talks2Self]

There were many bets placed, and with the arrival of Juno one would see leaflet tickets (ha) flying to the skies everywhere. The scene was a total uproar with the interference of Juno and the foreign object and those that placed bets were quickly surrounding a coyote fey (much smaller than usual) wearing a green visor hat and white shirt under a red vest. He was crunching numbers and making corrections as he is swarmed hands and wings and threats.

The truth was he was about to make off with the wagers quietly by jumping into a pocket dimension of his own making, but now he actually had to work while slapping hands coming too close to the cigarette holder that held a brunt out butt.

I had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of assorted grains, five sheets of high powered stone scrolls, a salt shaker half full of pure unrefined sugar, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also almost a gallon of milk, a quart of honey, a case of butterfly droppings, a pint of raw air and two dozen jars of flaxseed.
Not that I needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious scam, the tendency is to push it as far as you can...

Thought Sly to himself as he smirked.

However, even deeper in the crowd was a red smooth bodied figure that would occasionally throw something into the air. It would then clasp it's hand slowly to throw something into the air again. It had two blackened holes in its head evenly spaced apart with a long zigzag shaped mouth that seemed to smile as it seemed to follow the fight with amusement.

Ha! I didn't expect this to happen when I arrived. But I'm glad I came.

[Windra]

To to far northeast of Deep Forest ...

A Soul Reaver lit off a series of fireworks against the incoming wraith wave. Ghoulish howls reverberated between mammoth pines: eyes like void pits, claws of shadow.

Naira struck a match and grinned. "Open wide, asshats."

Fantastical colors and brilliant lights struck off like a technicolor thunderstorm. Wraiths in all directions shrieked, disintegrating into the consuming light.

One stray firework, though, missed its mark.

Current location ...

A large gryphon with the head and forelimbs of a pied cormorant and the tail/hind legs of a 'tiger' shark glided loftily through the night sky. In one webbed hand, he held a bottle of rum. His curved beak sipped happily from it as he merrily hummed a sea shanty.

"As I was a-walking down Paradise Street,
To me way-aye, blow the man down."

A firework streaked across the sky.

"A pretty young damsel I chanced for to meet.
Give me some time to blow the man down!"

FSHWEEEE!

The rocket blasted through his left wing, shot off for ten more feet, and burst with brilliant blues and greens.

"Fer feck's SAKE!" screamed the gryphon, losing his place in the sky and tumbling ... tumbling ...

No shadow would descend upon the fairy ring because it was night, but a pixie equivalent of an asteroid was hurtling their way.

[JunoZXV]

Meanwhile down below:

"OHHH and a body slam from behind! Who saw that coming!"

"Wait wait he's getting up on the ropes and... what's that up above?"

Everyone looked up and noticed a falling gryphon at that moment, save for those that couldn't understand what they were seeing.

One young baby dinosaur misinterpreted the falling ball of feathers, talons and a beak to their mom.

"Look! A shooting star!"

"Thats right," replied the parent with a tear in her eye. <Not like this> She thought <I thought we escaped this> "Make a wish honey"

"I wish I could be back with all my friends and daddy, they've been away for a long time since we went though the portal."


Meanwhile:

"Why do I hear boss music?"

MEANWHILE:

"We have an approaching bogey sir, how do we proceed?" Replied one pixie to another, both of them wearing some form of high official military garb.

"What is it?"

"Judging by the state of rage and anger, it appears were being given the bird."

"Standard procedure then, blue ball that sucker!"

The ring lit up, the mushrooms shooting fairy magic skyward as a beam of blue energy rushed out to encase the target, no means of slowing it down but using the means of an ancient stored magic to shrink the oncoming target... right into the ring.

[Talks2Self]

Meanwhile...



As all of this insanity played out, Sly, never missing a chance to point out that he had seen something like this before.

"Awh, crap, I need to get out of here. This is how them big lizards died..." Sly dropped all of the wagers he was holding and searched his many pockets for his portal handkerchief. As he was pulling out many comical things in the process; such as a rubber chicken, a "never-ending" cloth rope, and even a horn, he could not find his handkerchief. He became distracted when he heard the dinosaurs and threw his arms wide in a 'See? I told you so!' fashion he immediately went back to his task in a panic.




Meanwhile...



The amused figure sat in one of the top rows of a mushroom stadium seat as they watched the (dare I say? Yes, I do) general bedlam that was taking place. The figure sported a smooth-featured mask with cosmic patterns and a seemingly stitched grin to the left side to this event. As it flicked popcorn that bounced off the lower part of a jaw line and dangled their legs with short kicks they would give the impression of childish youth to onlookers from afar.

The figure then spotted Sly in that crowd below and a supernova seemed to erupt within the patterned markings.They turned to Juno, then Sly, then to the griffin, then Juno, then Sly, then back to the griffin several times before wiping greasy red fingers along the chest of the cloak before standing too stretch with a crack and a sigh of bliss.

It physically reached in its satchel and withdrew two six-sided dice and cranked their hand to shake and throw. But before that would happen, the Air Force Fie essentially made a cannon ball from a acre of forestry.

To Bedlam, this was more fun.

They cast the dice into the air and they disappeared into a golden dust that dispersed quickly into the air.



Meanwhile...



A bird, whose name was Ron, was ever searching for blue.

Becky use to lemme smash
But Becky won't lemme smash anymore
Becky is smashing Ben
Ben is a hoe
Becky
Plz
I need u Becky
C'mon lemme smash
U used to think my tail was big
I show you

A gentle breeze ruffled Ron's feathers and he shook. Suddenly Ron had an idea.

Becky likes blu
Becky likes sticks
I'll go find a blu stick for Becky
Then Becky will lemme smash
U'll c Ben
I'll make u
Watch me smash Becky
U hoe

*peck*peck*peck*

And with that powerful statement from a simple bird, Ron took to the skies.

As Ron soared high above, he came in contact with golden particles and sneezed.

CHOO!
Da fuk?
I see blu!

Indeed, Ron saw something blue in the distance as he flew closer.

Is it stick?

The griffin appeared to Ron to be the most perfect blue stick in all the land.

Aw yas
That is blu stick
It is most perfect blu stick
in the land
Becky will finally lemme smash
I'm finally at peace

The bird closed his eyes in peace and soared faster to meet his perfect stick for his very special lady bird.

But what onlookers would have described from down below was a black bird flying to meet certain doom as it collided head first into the shrunken griffin into an explosion of black feathers, a sudden and short squawk, followed by the faintest sound of a text-to-speech bot exclaiming, "No" with a repeated 'O' until the sound was no more.

[Windra]

"FECKFECKFECKFECKFECKFECKFECK - "

The screaming ball of feathers and shark bits came tumbling down with the energy to explode (black birds into *pompfs*)!

And got smaller ... And smaller ...

"I'LL FECKIN' KILL YOU!"

*WHOMP*

Into the ring he went. Into the ring. The force if the impact was enough to blast a hole into it. A yawning, gaping hole filled with angry screams.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" A pied cormorant's head popped out, glaring about. "Which one of ya @$$holes blew me outta the sky? I'll kick all yer scrawny @$$as!" He went to flap out onto the ring and immediately shrieked, "MY GODF@MN! WING! THERE'S A HOLE IN MY GODD@MN WING!"

... MEANWHILE ...

So, about that bottle of rum?

Yeah. It didn't get shrunk. In fact, it spun circle in the air, flinging liquid gold every which way. Pixies were being downed by great globules of liquid.

And ... *SMASH*!

Well, hopefully nobody important was in those stands ... Poor Sly's feet stuck out from beneath the bottle, twitching. Somewhere in the distance, a witch was reminded of her sister's death and went full PTSD.

[JunoZXV]

Was there someone in those stands. Yes.

Were they important well...

"Mommy?" Came the voice of a baby dinosaur on the verge of tears. "Mommy wake up."

Uhhhh....

"ALRIGHT ALRIGHT, break it up, fights postponed. We gotta repair the stage and get the Parameds here." Came a shout from the announcers table.

"Don't worry young one, we'll get her to a hospital right away."

And with that the Dinosaur gag exited stage left.

AT the ring.

"Hey you alright there?" Asked the ref brandishing an umbrella and holding a mug. "It's raining ale and you look like you could use a drink."

[Talks2Self]

As the bottled courage of pirates across the seas hurdled downward, a Changeling was too preoccupied with rummaging through his seemingly endless pockets to notice his time had come to an end here.

In fact, had he not been searching so hard to find a way out, about 0.5 seconds earlier he would have noticed he would have had time to make a swifter escape by using his legs gifted to him at birth. "But alas, fate had cast the final die. Yes, this was it. And it was a mildly painful goodbye. For there had been many before more crafty than he, but at least the bottle he did see. For as it crashed into the poor creature, there was a now toes sticking out under the new bleachers. They curled under, as this tale is told. Now he would be ingested by me to serve my needs in the dark and cold..."

Bedlam, whom had been in the mushroom bleachers as they were splintered by forceful impact, seemed fine as he spoke aloud walking towards the crushed causality. The robes fluttered at the bottom as red gelatinous tendrils transitioned smoothly out from beneath and wormed under the bottle where the feet were last seen.

The man-coyote was never seen taken away, but it became clear he was stolen away under the robes as the tendrils came back and hid again.

Bedlam spoke low, "Good game," and turned away from the scene to now walk more like a joyful buffoon to examine what was happening everywhere else here.

[Windra]

(( Accepted. Welcome back! ))

The gryphon didn't really see all of what happened with the bottle - he was far too disoriented from the fall and general hole in his goddamn wing to really pay heed.

And when he was hurt, he got angry. That long beak of his snapped at Razor Wing even as they started leaving the ring, despite the fight being called off. This guy didn't care. It wasn't a match to him. He was pissed.

"Git back 'ere ya lily liver tit! I'll bite yer twig legs off!"

When Juno approached, that furious mouth nipped awfully close to the neko's face.

"The hell're you s'ppose tah be? I'll yank yer tail out! I'll ... I'll ... " Distracted by the mug presented and then caving to a weak will, the gryphon yanked the mug and downed the contents in two hard swallows. It did wonders to warm the belly. Might numb the pain a bit, too. "That ... Thaz good." A long avian belch rocked his stomach, showering Juno with an alcoholic aroma. "Mebbe ya ain't s'bad."

[JunoZXV]

"Yeah well looks like you took a tumble there. Welcome to Deep for-uhh whoops forgot where I was a second. Welcome to the Lost Glen, stranger. OI!" He ref turned his head to the EMT's. "We got a bleeder here."

A little while later they came by with gauzes, bandages disinfectant... The regular slew of questions, how many fingers "He's under the influence, so that's not gonna work." did he have anything to drink "HOLDING THE MUG RIGHT HERE" Flying under the influence "HOLE. IN. THE. GROUND."

Needless to say after that was all done, it devolved into "Yeah that's gonna take a while to heal, check with a doctor later to make sure no bones got broken."

"It's FEATHERS. It's all bone..." Muttered the Referee as he turned to the Gryphon. "Anyway ya doing better? They're much better at defensive magic and status effects than recovery."

[Talks2Self]

Bedlam had merely been present for these events and operated better in smaller, more mouldable groups of denizens. Knowing when the cards should be played and when to pull out; they had simply given a nod to those clamored around the grphyon and bid adieu to the scene.

Bedlam walked off into the tree lines to be consumed by a mist that seemed to receed with their exit.

((Sorry I didn't contribute as much as I had liked! I'll get better at this.))

[Windra]

The gryphon muttered something about the EMTs being incompetent louts before scratching furiously at the injured wing. "Chrissake, this itches sumthin' fierce! G@d@mn firework hit me outta nowhere! The nerve!"

Was he feeling any better? He scrawed at the rhetoric question.

"Nah, mate! Feel like ah've been hit by a draggin!" At least he had the decency to set the mug down instead of tossing it. The gryphon stretched the broken wing before him with a series of foul curses too vivid to speak here, setting upon it with wrbbed claws. "Why. Do. Ya. Itch!?"

Bits of blood went here and there, until finally something else gave way. Tumbling from the gunpowder-lined hole at the apex of the creature's wing came a singed, (burned) blueberry-scented tarantula.

"'Ow the 'ell did that get 'ere?"

And he thwapped it away with a huff.

"Now ... Where am I, and why d'the trees look so big? Hell's a Lost Glen?"

[JunoZXV]

"Well technically you're 1/48th the size you should be." The ref replied, pocketing the singed blueberry-smelling running gag.

"The Lost glen is just that, a lost piece of the forest. You just happened to *almost* crash land into it. But you got the same treatment I did when I wandered in, and until it's safe for them to let us out. We're stuck here."

[Windra]

"Safe fer them ta let us ... ," grumbled the gryphon under hissed breath.

Black and white plumes rose aloft, irritation fixated on the very way his claws dug into the ring to pull himself from the hole. Hindquarters clawed and shaped like a feline's but with the coarse skin of a striped shark dug in, giving him the final push out.

He whipped around, crescent shark tail flashing in reckless abandon for Juno. The gryphon hadn't intended it, but also didn't appear to give a hoot.

"Jus' how long before they t'ink iz safe? How long you been 'ere, Pinko?"

[JunoZXV]

"There's a family of dinosaurs here if that answers your question" The Ref bluntly put it. "Really I should just ask, might be that simple."

"Hey!" he yelled at a nearby pixie. "How do we get out of here?"

"Oh, that's easy you just get past the ring."

"Yeah, but what if we were... uh, larger before we got here."

The pixie shrugged "no idea, never seen that done before."

[Windra]

If he had teeth, they'd be grinding. "Are ya f@ckin' kiddin' me ... "

The gryphon was suddenly pushing past the pirate, leaping and rebounding off the ropes. Claws tore through soft soil, beyond the broken glass and smashed stadiums. There were a few (many) times when he stumbled over his own feet (because, you know, mild intoxication) and at one point he slammed headlong in the bleacher wall.

"AGGHH-!" he roared, righting tangled limbs as best he could. Each sentence was punctuated by a moment of sure(false)footedness. "Ya ain't ... Gonna keep ... Ol' Hookbeak ... Trapped 'ere!"

He spread his wings, aiming for the land beyond.

But forgot thw crucial bit of information in which his wing had a hole in it, screeched in pain, and plummeted into the ground. His useless husk of a body dragged a groove through the earth.

"I ain't gonna stay trapped in some land o' pixies!" was his mumbled complaint into the dirt.

[JunoZXV]

"Okay first off, there's all sorts of critters here. The Fae are generally not to be trifled with. Second were not trapped, we free to leave. Just... Smaller than we were"

The Ref corrected as the pointed to a space between the shrooms lining the horizion. "I just don't wanna deal with gigantic squirrels or huge hooves."

[Windra]

"Well if we ain't trapped, then we jes gotta convince 'em to make us big!" Hookbeak snapped.

His feathers flared and, despite the injury to his wing, they spread wide behind him. For such a scrawny creature, his wingspan was actually pretty impressive.

"O' course, when I say convince, I mean grab th' eader an' threaten 'em til they give!" Beady eyes glared at a passing guard and he holler, "'Ey, glitter wing! Take me to yer boss! I got fishes ta catch and @$$es ta kick! I ain't winnin' over no gryphon ladies if I ain't bigger 'an a mouse! Size does matter!"

[JunoZXV]

"Gryphon ladies you say... Hmm... have to make note of that one." The pirate muttered to himself as he watched the pixie just ignore the gryphon and promptly fly off.

"I don't think they work for the people who shrunk ya. And by extension me. Honestly, if I had to venture a guess I think it'll wear off as soon as you leave. The reason why it's not wearing off now is because we're on a hub of fae energy. Once we're off of it there's nothing keeping the spell's battery charged. "

[Windra]

"If'n thass th' are, what're ya still 'ere get?" grunted Hookbeak. Ge preened his wounded feathers, hissing vulgarities under his breath. "Said ya dun wanna get crushed but what th' hell ya gonna accomplish by not even takin' he shot?"

With a hiss, the cormorant-headed chimeric beast plucked a twisted feather from his wing. The bloody bone fluttered gently down.

"Ya ain't gotta ton ta worry 'bout. Ain't seen no unis. Folks kinda spread out - seen 'em when flyin ova. Eghhh ... Ya cin' hide 'ere all ya want, but ta hell with this. I ain't wasting as some pint-sized ... sparrow!"

Hookbeak swung with an air of 'good day, sir. I SAID GOOD DAY!' and traipsed into the distance ... To be crushed or get fully grown again was anybody's guess.