The endless waste

[aestrix]

Once, this planet teemed with life. It doesn't do that, anymore. The ground is dry and cracked and occasionally broken up by charred remains of trees. There are no birds, no bugs, no living plants - nothing but an empty, endless waste.

With one exception.

But the world is so very big, and the exception so very small. If someone showed up away from it, they could be quite forgiven for thinking this world is completely dead.




with Sable (Kappa)

with Aisilian (Link)

with Grendyne (Rockeye)

with Temple (Curiousdiscoverer)

Comments

[greatestgift]

Potion!

"...Weird," she says, frowning down at herself. "Like a bubble of extra ground. I wonder if these would be useful for malice fights, or if it would just make you a great big shiny target..."

[light_another_life]

"I mean, great big shiny targets could be useful, if you have a way to kill them," she points out. "Like, for example, replenishable primed knives..."

[greatestgift]

"Being a great big shiny target also gets you ground-ripped, which is extremely uncomfortable," she says. "Maybe combined with a ground shield, though."

[light_another_life]

"Ground ripped?"

(Potion.)

[greatestgift]

"Malices can pull big chunks of ground out of things around them. Some Lakewalkers can do it too. The way malices do it it hurts like you wouldn't believe, if it doesn't kill you right away, which it usually does. But my parents invented something called a ground shield that sort of... makes your ground slippery so nothing can grab it."

[light_another_life]

"Huh. Convenient. Might be useful for hungry nodes."

[greatestgift]

"Maybe!"

[light_another_life]

"I can hope!"

Back to the air they go. They have a sickly node to tend to.

"I'm hesitating to actually call essence ground, because while they act the same sort of way, they might have huge glaring differences we don't notice until later."

[greatestgift]

"They're not the same thing," says Sable. "But I think they're very, very closely related."

[light_another_life]

She nods.

Is that the node up ahead? It certainly feels like it!

[greatestgift]

It absolutely feels like it. Ugh ugh ugh.

[light_another_life]

"Are you okay?"

[greatestgift]

"I'm fine. Sickly nodes are uncomfortable, that's all."

[light_another_life]

"Ah. Sorry. Well, we're close enough to begin feeding it, so - I will be pouring essence potions near it, and you can fly around making grass."

[greatestgift]

"Delightful."

[light_another_life]

Good, with that decided, she lands and gets to pouring essence potions near it. Exciting stuff, this.

[greatestgift]

Sable flies in circles, holding her bottomless bucket.

She actually doesn't pour water directly out of the bucket - it appears some distance below her, one 2' x 2' x 2' cube at a time, and splashes onto the wasteland from there. (She does not drop any on the plant woman, because she's nice.)

When patches of wasteland have had a moment to appreciate their newfound dampness, she bestows grass upon them with a Staff of Regrowth.

[light_another_life]

The patches of wasteland are so grateful! Yay! Grass!

.... The grass immediately starts wilting.

This is probably supposed to happen.

[greatestgift]

Yes, the blighted sickly node - the literally blighted sickly node - is draining them.

She can just keep putting down more grass. It is not like she will run out.

[light_another_life]

It's true! She will not.

Eventually the grass stops wilting immediately.

"Okay," says Sable's companion. "That's enough for now. We haven't cured it yet, but it's closer to being fixed. It needs some time to, er, essentially digest. Basically. I think it'll take, mmm... Two more trips for it to become normal."

[greatestgift]

"And would it be worth dropping water and grass wherever else we happen to pass by on those trips?"

[light_another_life]

"Yeah. Usually I get more than one node while I'm feeding them."

[greatestgift]

"And it doesn't cost anything to pour water and make grass while we fly."

[light_another_life]

"Yep! Though I might need you to water the grass later, so it doesn't all die immediately. It doesn't rain anymore."

[greatestgift]

"Honestly even dead grass would be an improvement."