Taking the Scenic Route

"What's that smell?"  Under the earth toned jacket her hair brushed against, Elaine pulled her jacket back and forth to try and fan herself.  "It's like despair has actually risen up to make me smell how bad this place is."

Guiding the duo through from the train station, Amethyst pushed on through the downtrodden littering the street like garbage.  "Don't say something like that so close to a...a..."

"Graveyard?  Mausoleum?  Dump?"  Flicking her wrists to keep herself at readied attention, Elaine surveyed the decrepit buildings succumbing to the structural damage to the city's scars.

"Burial mound is what I would go with."  Winds cut in and out of the alleyways like ghosts chasing what they once were.  Amy fixed the hemming of her skirt to sit above her stockings.  "I remember Yulanda talking to me about the beginning of burials.  Do you know where..."

"Oh my God, I don't care..."  Throwing her head back in protest, Elaine refused her partner the history lesson.  

"Well, druid orders in northern Europe used mounds that eventually became the foundation for the Wiltshire Henge.  You see..."

"Spirit Corgi!"  Elaine out shouted Ame.  "Here boy, here Spirit Corgi."

"You see..."  Ame rose her voice to emphasize the point.  "Death and the stars have important bearings on the changing of weather.  That is why we are coming to this garden."

"It is not..."  Quickly, Elaine cut Ame off.  "We're here because Spirit Corgi told us to get those berries."

"In a shorten way yes, but the berries would not be here if it weren't for the knowledge of weather patterns that came from ceremonial burying.  I don't know..."

Pushing Ame back with her shoulder, Elaine bulldozed past the now static Ame.  "This looks like a garden."

"Hmm."  The overgrowth ran rampant, but this looked more promising.  "It does look like it."

"You should probably be careful."  Coming out from behind her subconscious barriers, the small corgi companion of Elaine made his appearance.

"Don't worry, I already told Ame to shut up about that boring burying stuff."  Both of her pistols rested along the back of Elaine's jeans.  

"Excuse me for trying to enlighten you."  Moving along the wind, Ame caught up with Elaine to overlook the garden.  

"What do you know about enlightenment?"  Feeling Ame stepped into her turf, Elaine tried to aggressively challenge Ame to an enlightenment contest.  Hey, it worked before.  "I bet you've never even met real Buddhist monks at a community college before."

"You've got me there."  Shaking her head in disregard for the warning the spectral guide heeded, Ame and Elaine continued to walk through garden.  

"There is something wicked in this patch!"  Barking his warning to try and gather their gaze, Spirit Corgi trailed along.

"Knew it..."  Elaine looked over to Ame.

"Good, so when you get in there..."  Strategies to stay as quiet as they could began to formulate in the dog's head.  

"...You can ramble on about things no one cares about, but you can never out enlighten me.  It is impossible."

"I didn't mean enlightenment like that..."

"Of course not, there is no way you would walk into a trap like that."  Forsaking the herbs they came for, Elaine and Ame continued to walk blindly into the garden, continuing their squabbling.  "That the thing about enlightenment, you get a sense for danger."

"How's that sense going, girl?"  Softening his stride, the dog could only wait for danger to strike.

The festering mass of green on the outskirts of the city, visibly spread outwards from it's core, plant overlapped plant like a quilt along the dirt riddled flooring. The twisted arcs of trees bent over the top and began to block out the sun, more and more the further into the forest one went. The blackened back dropping had shadows darting across it as if there were animals inside this forest. Fancy flowers, exotic, rare and even some 'extinct' species had sprouted from the care-taker of this area's love. But things were strange...

Plant's locations seemed to change whenever you were not looking, some got closer, others went further away. Vivid spores also blew around in the air, filling the nostrils with pleasant, near subliminal smells. The further you walked into this large swirling maze of botanical specimens the more intense and crazy it got... Venus fly traps the size of men. Even some species of mutant plants similar to the sarlac from star wars. Rows of thorns around it's swirling pit, large teeth snapped, ready to consume anything it's spores lead inside. There was trees, trees with roots which seemed to reach out, to desperately snap at any form of living organism.

Odd sounds and snarls were heard from the distance, and the sun continued to try and break through the roof, and of course, right in the most poisonous center of this little paradise was the queen herself. Thistle sat inside the largest plant of them all, fanning her own face. Of course, we forget... the trio are only at the start...


The path before them appeared simple, and as soon as they stepped inside all they could smell was the near divine smell off the plants which were unqiue to this area. Useful for toxins, tonics and elixirs. If you could get a hold of them. With Thistle's near passive influence most of the plants within this Eden were mutated. The path disappeared into patches of Poison Ivy leaves and brambles, and behind, vines curled around each other, getting ready to strike at the humans which had dared to set foot into this area. And of course, as soon as they had, the plants had taken the liberty to tell their queen just what was happening. How cute.

She let out a cackle when they told her, and just remained on her throne. She wouldn't even have to do anything, she doubted these people could even make it through the first eighth of this place without dying. Hmph...


Or could they?



[ok this confused me alittle bit... i'll put an OOC simplified thing down here.

I described the eden abit further in, but you aren't there yet you're just at the start, and that even though you're barely inside there's plant-life that would would've had to travel thousands of miles to find otherwise.]

"That wall just closed."  The troubled spirit relayed to the preoccupied duo.  Even though a great amount of attention went into careful perception, none of the forewarning made it to an interested party.  

"Why can't we just buy these berries from some communist hippie at a drum circle?"  Dragging her shoulders around her chest pulled Elaine's body into a forward posturing.

"First, if someone was selling these at a market, we would need to shut them down, and two, these berries are very special."  Ame found the smell of the forest captivating.  She could barely tell if it smelled good because of the plants or the disappearance of the smell of New York, but she did not want to leave it for sometime.  

Intently skimming through Ame's words, Elaine misheard a phrase.  "Did you say 'berry' special?"

"No, I said very special."

"These plants are moving."  Barked the alert corgi.

"It sounded like you said 'berry'."  Heeding no attention to the warnings, Elaine continued to move in step with Ame.  The foliage turned to a much more foreign appeal thick with a pleasing aroma.

"Is there someone else I can speak with?"  Frantic and at a loss for composure, the dog ran through Elaine to take position in front of her.  

"I'm not five, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make a pun, but to answer your question, we need these berries for tracking reasons."  In a world at odds with the supernatural, finding the important reagents became a very arduous and dangerous task.  Whenever a batch of magical alchemical supplies pop up, they only pop up in the presence of very dangerous people or places, and Ame and Elaine, were they paying attention, would know that.

Movement in the branches went unnoticed by Elaine.  It would prove costly, but they couldn't turn back now.  "Database or divining?"  Eclectic stores of oddities always bounced around from mundane to magical.  On one day a magic berry opened a scrying portal, the next it gets ground up for potpourri.  


"Both, but divining purposes will be first.  I might take a few to try to grow my own and have something to help me divine..."  Before she could finish her statement, a root reached out to snare her.  The tendrils wrapped her arms and neck separately and began to pull her into the foliage.  

"If you grew it yourself we wouldn't have to come to God awful New York.  It smells like free healthcare and gay marriage..."  In between bouts the bouts of choking Amethyst tried to gain Elaine's attention while she continued her rants against left wing politics.  "Why can't you just grab the berries by yourself?"

"Because she is choking to death right now."  Worn out from Elaine's ignorance, the beleaguered spirit returned to his flat tone.  

Elaine turned back to see the roots begin to take Amethyst deeper into the darkness of the forest.  "Oh my god..."  She spoke with some surprise.  "Are you okay?"

"No..."  The dog turned to condescension.  "...she is dying."  

"Not on my watch..."  Elaine drew her pistols and pointed them towards Amethyst, eliciting the shock of both the spirit corgi and the distressed Amethyst.  "Hold still and hope Karma doesn't direct my bullets into your head."

"What does karma have to do with this?"  While the dog inquired, Elaine began to fire.  

"Karma guides my bullets most of the time.  I found when you are chasing bad guys you can normally just fire indiscriminately and karma hits all the bad people."  Each shot hit and eliminated the grasp with extreme prejudice.  "Sometimes you wouldn't even suspect they were bad people, but why else would my bullets hit them?"

Finally the grasp of the plant broke free and Amethyst could breathe.  "Because you are an amoral monster!"

"Saved you ass."  Elaine returned her guns to her holster.  

"Okay..."  The dog looked at the spread of plants encircling the two girls.  "Now do it a few hundred more times and it will count for something."

"We need to go back to back..."  Elaine surveyed the angry foliage pining for revenge.  "...Keep them from getting us from behind while we get out of here..."  Each blade of grass and barb of bark pointed in anger to the duo while the branches continued to block the escape.  "...Why didn't you tell me we couldn't get out that way!"


"I did."  With the usual disappointment, the corgi shook his head to recount the tale.  "You were preoccupied, because you thought Ame said 'berry' special." 



"Well, it sounded really dumb."  Shambling danger lurked in the darkness of the forest; against the dire nature of the situation, Elaine responded with anger with the overgrowth of chaos circling around her.

"We have bigger problems."  A quick survey of the tree line gave Ame nothing to look upon with pleasure.  The barbed thorns of several of the plants almost looked carnivorous in nature.  "And they have teeth!"

"Well, plants have to eat something.  They can't just eat other plants, that would be cannibalism, so the only other thing to eat is meat..."  Rounds slid into the chambers at the pushing of Elaine's fingers.  With her guns back to the read, Elaine pulled out her pistols and prepared for the worst.  "How else would plants live?"



"Plants don't eat; they use photosynthesis."  Reaching into her satchel, Ame pulled a flask with an unstable property bouncing within. 

"That word just sounds made up."  Dropping from the canopy of the forest, a rain of drool dropped onto Elaine's shoulder while she continued her banter.  Catching the approach out of the corner of her eye, Elaine motioned herself forward to activate her shadow jump and reappear fifteen feet away from where the plant would strike.  In her haste to remove herself from danger, she placed her back to the forest behind her, firing against the monstrosity clamoring for her.

Taken back by the savage creature between them, Ame watched to see if Elaine could dispatch the beast without her assistance.  Each of her flasks could ignite enough of an area to make sentient plan life think twice before charging her, but wanted to be efficient with her flasks and her ability to like them.  Rubbing her thumb across the metal lid of the flask gave her a timing system for her countdown, and kept her preoccupied to the danger beneath her. 

Feeling her center of gravity suddenly shift into her stomach upon the ground, Ame dropped the flask in front of her.  Adrenaline pushed her arm forward, but her fingers dangled in front of her salvation as the ravenous plant pulled her back.  Bursting jagged teeth from the body of the tree, Ame caught what her fate would be if she could not get to her flask.  Loose dirt parted ways as Ame found herself dragged closer and closer to the severity of the tree. 

Flying from the vicinity of Elaine, one of her pistols hit against Ame's flask, pushing it into her hands.  Ame grabbed it and brought it to her body.  A spark shot from her hand into the metal chamber atop the jar to begin the process.  As she could now feel the force of the tree snaring at her, Ame tossed the flask towards the body of the tree to ignite the creature.

"I'm beginning to think all these freak accidents are somehow coordinated."  Flipping through bullets like a catalog, Elaine listened as the buzz of the forest acted all around her.  "If Amethyst has been eaten yet..."  An explosive round looked like just the ticket.  "...I should probably make my way over to her."

A gentle blowing in the air ushered in the advice from the familiar corgi.  "Not to be the nagging force..."

"I just let you back in!"

"Not even a physical possibility.  However..."  In between the hushed pause in his words and the release of the fumes from the flower came a sinister buzzing in the air.  "That large scaling wall is trying to delay your plan."  

"Double-ewe E."  Giving a minute to allow the forest to get up to speed with her, Elaine spun the gun in her hand eying a near-by tree.  

"That thing I said was about to happen is happening."  An overgrowth surmounted from the deep foliage and cackled a laughter made of twigs snapping under the vastness of its girth.  "...And now make that happened."

"Are you talking?"  Announcing their resolve with the subtlety of a horde, Elaine held her pistol towards the tree left scarred by Elaine's earlier transgression against nature.  Impacting into the  bark of the tree threw chips of bark and lumber into the air.  The swarm grew closer with ill intent.  A quick twirl of her pistol brought the detonation mechanism in her grip under her thumb.  A gentle press brought the tree down.  Violently.  

"Discretion is the better part of valor?"  Hoping to gain favor with Elaine to save Amethyst, the dog pointed his attention to the wall of vines dividing them from their alchemist.

"I don't know what either of those words means..."  A shroud of broken limbs and burnt bark descended upon the swarm before Elaine.  Now, she knew what lie behind her truly needed her attention.  "...I'm just going to get on the other side of this tree thing..."  Slipping into thin air and then rematerializing on the other side, Elaine came upon her lost ally, lost in the appearance of an oddly acting flower.  "Is that the thing?  Can you get it and go?"

"I've never smelled this before..."  Lost from the question Elaine asked, Amethyst continued her daze into the pedals of the consuming plant.  "...It's not the plant I need, but I think I should pick it..."

"Cool, all these trees are acting weird, so I'm sure picking a flower won't hurt anything."  Turning her back to examine the wall of bark she shadow stepped through, Elaine looked through her ammo belt and pulled out a round.  "I think we should be able to blow a hole through most of these plants and get out that way."

Her resolve was easy enough, but the release of poison from the devious flower would prove otherwise.

Such a pleasing aroma kept Amethyst mesmerized until the violent rupturing of the flower began to take place.  Safe from the distance of the initial dispersal of toxins, Elaine took a moment to analyze the situation as bullet deserving and fired one round into the base of the flower.  Her gun flipped in her palm to put the detonation trigger back under her thumb and ensued the explosion would uproot the flower.  Misunderstanding the threat the flower posed, the violent eruption lent the flower a more expansive throe under the volatile conditions.  "Get down!"

Under the pretense of an eruption, Amethyst fell back as fragments of filament rained around her.  With the bullet dug into the ground, she safely avoided any real fragmentation or explosion related injury, but her waning eyesight and stiffness in her leg began to tell a different story.  "You're supposed to say that before you fire the round!"

"I guess you don't know how time works, so double-ewe ee home girl."  Proud of her handiwork, but tiring of the long trek through the forest for something she assumed they could buy online, Elaine began to survey the land for a way to leave.  None of this trouble was worth it for something a guy on the internet stocked hundreds of.  Probably a smelly guy, definitely fat, probably with an Asian fetish.  "Well, I guess we can't just leave now."  Trials and tribulations awaited them as Elaine pulled her bandanna over her nose and grabbed her poorly feeling companion and pulled her behind.  

"When were we planning that?"  Finally managing to pull a handkerchief over her nose, Amethyst hoped to be let in on this sudden change of heart from a course of action she did not fully know existed.  

"It was an idea I floated around, but I don't need chubby white guys checking me out."

"I think this thing I've inhaled is making me hear things, or maybe I just don't follow."

"Oh, you're following..."  With a tight grip on the alchemist whom subjected herself to the worst the forest had to offer, Elaine began pushing further into the twisting treeline of this morbid sanctuary of life.  "...We're getting those things that are 'berry' special and then we're going to fight evil."

As the arrival of the floral mastermind appeared, Elaine placed her guns into the holster to begin to reload.  "Don't stare at her junk."  

"I wasn't going to!"  Cut off from the frame of thought she constructed to deal with the situation, Amethyst took a deep breath before beginning to parley with the woman before her.

A brief exchange of words from Thistle cut Amethyst short on her discourse.  Standing before the woman clad in her very power, Elaine piled on the number of preventions to Amethyst.  "See, she says 'berry' ironically, not like you."  

"It's not the..."  Flustered and not winning any points from a game no one can win, Amethyst moved her attention to the avatar of this realm.  "Keeper of the Grove..."

"If she doesn't punch you in the face, I want to."  Elaine crossed her arms.  

Amethyst strengthened her voice to drown out the usurpation of the vocal domain.  "We have come here to collect a very rare berry to help us understand an enemy from another dimension."

"You don't know it's from another dimension; stop trying to look smart and diplomatic in front of the naked lady."  Looking off to the side, the growing number of plants stayed ever vigilant around Elaine.  

"If we could be granted this favor, we would gladly leave your sanctuary with no more...implications."  Amethyst made the offer.  That much was sound, but a list of conflicting agendas would impact everything else.

"Okay, so what were the berries we needed again?"

"I don't know." Elaine crossed her arms as the foliage grew unsuspectingly around her boots.

"Ask the little dog what they are."

"Is she serious?"  Never far from an insult, Spirit Corgi emerged. "She forgot what they are called?"

"Spirit Corgi shows dismay at your forgetfulness."  Further the vines grew around Elaine's boots.

"Just ask..."

"What are they called so we can stop talking to this tree lady."

"They are called Amethyst Berries."

"Oh my God!"  The escalation of her voice left her deaf to the encroachment of foliage. "They are called Amethyst Berries! How did you forget that?"

"It's been a stressful day. I've almost been eaten by plants, decapitated by plants, mauled by plants..."  Remembering who she was with, Amethyst turned to Thistle. "But it is a lovely garden and we are sorry for any trouble."

"I'm not."

"Yeah I agree with you on the 'this place sucks' motion."

"Spirit Corgi doesn't like it either."

"Well we can leave soon. Isn't that good enough?"

Elaine shrugged her shoulders as the plants took a firm grip on her.

While Elaine held her ground, Amethyst began to walk towards the bushes with Thistle. Once Amethyst had moved half way to the bushes, Elaine begrudging started to try and move her legs, but to no avail. "What the?"  Elaine looked down to the brambles. "Um?" She pondered out loud before starting to call for Amethyst.

Now the plants made their move. Before Elaine could shout out for Amethyst to turn around the vines wrapped around Elaine's mouth. More plants wrapped around her arms and hands to keep her from fighting against the garden any longer. For several seconds Elaine squirmed with all her might to break loose from the foliage holding her captive.

Glimmering lights brightened up the hedge where Thistle kept her berries. Each branch slowly turned down to allow Amethyst to pluck them off. As she reached out her hand, the branch recoiled as Thistle wanted a new condition. "Elaine stays?" Amethyst started to laugh. "You think you can keep her?" As she finished her sentence, she noticed Thistle smiling behind her. When Amethyst took made a one eighty, she shockingly set her gaze on Elaine. "What happened to you?!"

"Mmmphhh!" Elaine went back to squirming under the caress of the deadly plants.

"She stays?" Amethyst repeated Thistle. "Deal." Amethyst put out her hand to broker the transaction until she heard 'feed her to the forest'. Wanting to stay away from the ears of Elaine, Amethyst invited Thistle to the side and lowered her voice. "How about you keep her for a day and teach her the ways of the forest or something?" If Thistle declined, Amethyst would take her up on the berries and assume Elaine could escape. "Well, I really fought for you Elaine. But, you know how these things work. It's complicated."

Amethyst would start her egress as Elaine glued her eyes to her in a harsh gaze.