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Who: Ellie, OTA
What: The goddess of the wilds and hunt has a different understanding of where the wilderness ends than most people.
Where: The forest, and throughout the town
When: A couple of days after night and day start happening
Other: In this log, you don't have to interact with Ellie - if you just want to react to the plant grown and/or try to beat it back with other characters, you're welcome to - just indicate so in the subject!

1. Meet Ellie
A young redhead walks around, who blends in well with the other natives. She looks a bit rough, maybe, with a scar through her eyebrow and worn clothing, but superficially similar. The way she walks, however, is different from most fifteen year olds. It's a little too sharp, and she keeps carefully to the side. If anyone watches closely enough, it's clear to see that she's keeping an eye on everyone who comes close. Between that and her guarded body language, she doesn't quite fit in.

Of course, the hunting bow on her back and the american accent make it much more obvious that she's not local.

But she needs food. For the moment, most of the locals are happy to share, considering everything goes back to where it was every day. The grocery stores all just stay vaguely open, for the moment - there are people who show up, but there's not much in the way of money exchange. Of course, it's only that way until the crisis is over, but...

Ellie gets to try interesting things, if nothing else. Today, it's a frozen pizza, oranges, and some packets of 'soy sauce.' It's obviously supposed to go on top of stuff, but since there isn't any 'sushi' in this place, Ellie thinks pizza might work. Maybe?

Ellie shoves the food into her backpack, pulling out her bow completely to make room for everything. It's tall and polished, some dark grain of wood she doesn't know the name of, but it's nice - probably too nice for a teenager.

It's not like she's announced herself as the hunter god, though some might recognize the bow. Ellie knows she's impulsive, but she's ~~too paranoid~~ not stupid enough to post a video of herself, like some of these people. She's still mortal and shit, this is just some weird way of helping out this place.

"Shit," Ellie swears quietly as her bow tips over, clattering on the tile floor. It's loud and makes her want to wig out. So much for being a stealthy fucking god.

2. It's Not Easy Being Green

This city doesn't look right to Ellie. While she never really walked in the woods until a year and a half ago, she has been surrounded by plant life. It's hard to keep things running when you're desperately trying to keep the civilians from revolting and the zombies from invading. Most of the world she's seen is dilapidated, with plants cracking through the roads and vines climbing up the walls. Even when houses aren't destroyed, vegetation spreads through them, wild and unchecked. Ellie never thought about it, and still doesn't, not really.

She just thinks that something looks off.

The vegetation flourishes almost overnight, blooming quickly. First, the forest is revitalized, the trees growing and sprawling into a thick copse. The next day, plants start growing in the paths, wherever they can find respite from the shade of the trees. It makes the forest hard to navigate, but not impossible.

It's the second night that the vegetation starts encroaching on the city. While not even the power of a goddess can break through the roads so quickly, the plants take the opportunity to climb buildings, bridges - whatever they can find, in a desperate quest for sunlight. Mold starts forming in the damp, much faster than it did before. Little weeds start surfacing through the cracks in the sidewalk, and the farm fields are quickly overtaken by tall grass and thick bushes.

In short, it's a mess.

Ellie walks away from the city, heading towards some of the farms. The dark bow is sticking out of her backpack, but she's not giving it or her surroundings much attention. She just walks slowly, lost in thought as she hikes through the underbrush, off any obvious path. The way she's able to adjust for a rock or disrupted earth is automatic, simple. Every now and again the sound of a far-off car makes her look up sharply, but after a moment she continues walking.

[OOC: a barely maintained walkway, and concept art for her world, to give you a sense of what the city is starting to look like. Beware of zombies after the "Pittsburgh" sign in the second link.]

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"Oh dear..."

The first sight of mold in her books had Zelda concerned. The moldy bookshelf freaked her out. But it isn't until she sees the state of the outside that she starts to be really worried. She can't imagine what's causing it, though. Is there a god of mold? The plants must be connected, but mold isn't technically a plant. Nature, then? Short investigation led her to the Temple of Hunting and the Wilderness. From there she starts asking around, looking for clues that might lead her to whoever created this mess.

Which is how she ends up stumbling and fighting her way through the brush, looking for deer paths and other things hunters might use. Of course a hunt god would have to hunt. She just wished they did it by horseback, like a proper noble.

"Hello? Is anyone out here? I'm looking for the god of wilderness!" Nobody seemed entirely clear on that individual's gender of yet.

As spaced out as Ellie is, she hasn't survived this long without some situational awareness. Normally she would be able to take cues from the animals or the wind or something, but the forest is too still.

It reminds her of winter, with most of the animals hiding. It's unsettling, deep in her spine, because the silence is overwhelming. She's not as cheerful as she was when she started travelling with Joel, but there's a large part of her that just wants to hum or sing so there's something beyond the silence, but it wouldn't be safe or comfortable. She's a goddess, but honestly, it's sort of a selfish decision. Wilderness is good and it's what she knows, and it's sort of needed, but it also gives her a kind of refuge. She doesn't have to try and figure out people, or try to fake a smile for Joel or shit like that. She can just... help the situation by existing, which is so much more than she's been doing back at home, lately.

But the person crashing through the undergrowth yelling for the wilderness god is sort of...obvious. At least they aren't hunting her.

Ellie heads toward the voice, careful to keep quiet. In a normal situation, there would be wind and other noises to mask her movement. It's not so in this case, but at least whoever's searching for her isn't exactly stealthy.

Creeping up, she considers the woman there. Interesting. It's a sensible outfit and everything, even if it's a little bright, but it looks...fancy. They aren't the twenty year old sneakers Ellie's been wearing, and the shirt is nice.

Is it part of this new world, or someone else from a strange world? Ellie's been watching the videos and texts and has even been responding to a few (and holy fuck is this phone weird), but she mostly gets faces from that.

Ellie pulls out her bow slowly, and notches an arrow and readies her bow, not quite fully drawn, but the threat is there as Ellie aims the bow at the woman's feet.

"Who wants to know?"

...Are those pointed ears?

Zelda waits a little after shouting the first time before trying again, hoping her voice carries well enough in this place. She's just taking a breath to shout when she hears that voice and spins.

Having a bow pointed at her is a little frightening, but at least it isn't pointed at her head or chest. She stands straighter, sets her shoulders and raises her chin, transforming into the princess she has always been.

"Prin-- Queen Zelda of Hyrule, interim Goddess of Knowledge and Reason." She is technically Queen now, but she just can't bring herself to call herself a Goddess without some qualifier.

"Are you the current Goddess of Hunting and Wilderness?"

Ellie eyes Zelda, not exactly impressed. She read storybooks about princesses and queens as a kid, and she knows there were some actual history of royalty in the world, but she doesn't know too much about it.

"Wouldn't you like to know." While it's not as vitriolic as it could have been, Ellie's still wary. In her experience, people actually seeking her want to kill her or want something from her, maybe with the exception of Joel. "If you're the goddess of knowledge, shouldn't you know?"

"I'm only acting as goddess because all the books in town were blank before I was.
She's certainly no Nayru, to be omniscient and worshiped, any more than she wants to be.

"I seek the person in charge of the wilderness because I believe they may have something to do with the mold problem at the library."

That catches Ellie off guard. A mold problem?

"I don't know what you're talking about." Still, Ellie loosens the bow a bit. She doesn't understand what she - or the god of the wilderness - would have to do with it. She hasn't been in town since yesterday morning for her daily raid of food (as much as daily means, anyway), and she hasn't been in any libraries since she got here.

"I mean... what would any god like that have to do with..."

Wait. Mold.

"Fuck. What color is it?" Ellie blanches. Georgia had talked about taking precautions against infecting someone herself, from their weird world with zombies. What if Ellie had brought the fungi? She's infected, or at least registers as infected with the scanners. And she stupid enough to pick god of the wilderness...

"Mostly grey." She's not sure why that matters, but she suspects she was right, and this is the goddess of wilderness in front of her.

"Neither the mold nor the overgrowth inside the town were there yesterday. As the day has been repeating on the part of the citizenship, the two are most likely connected both to each other and to one of the newcomers taking that throne."

"Oh." Ellie takes a slow breath in. It's not a guarantee, and she's going to have to go looking around to make sure there aren't any flesh-colored growths hiding anywhere, but it's better than cordyceps in the books.

"Okay, um. I can go, uh, look at it? I'm not really sure how I can fix it, though." She's a god, but so far she's still needed to eat and shit. So far, nothing too magical - except for the forest coming back and everything.

Zelda softens visibly as the girl loses all signs of aggression. She starts to smile as her shoulders and chin both relax.

"I would appreciate if you did. You may find when you get there that you can fix it after all."

Ellie has the urge to snap, but settles for scowling at Zelda instead.

"Go to your right. It's a smoother walk once you hit the pines." Ellie gestures for Zelda to lead, not quite trusting the woman at her back. Yeah, pretty ladies are great, but they can fuck you up just as much as the next hunter.

It sort of goes to show that nice people always want something. Hopefully it's as benign as moldy books and then she'll leave Ellie alone, but it probably won't be that easy.

That does sound a little like orders being given to a hostage, but Zelda decides to give Ellie the benefit of the doubt.

"To the pines? Yes, alright. I'm afraid I'm not much for this sort of deep forest. Thank you." She heads off in that direction, as loud and clumsily as before.

Ellie follows Zelda, much more quietly in comparison, and after a few minutes decides to carry her bow loosely in one hand, the arrow tucked back into its quiver. Ellie steps up a bit more closely, keeping to the left. Ellie's a little impatient, wishing Zelda would be quieter and move faster, but that seems like an either-or situation.

Wow. Zelda isn't great at this. Not that Ellie was at first, either, but she was okay at being a little quiet. Then again, she was a military brat who liked causing trouble. Zelda's apparently... a queen? Too bad Ellie's always been shit at listening to authority.

"So... how long has this mold been there? Is it only in the books?" Ellie feels a sudden pang. She actually does have her comic collection with her, but it's been a few months since she's been able to distract herself with them. Maybe she needs new material.

She can be incredibly quiet! In the castle, or in town, where things are paved. Even in fields where there aren't a bunch of roots and junk trying to mess her up. Once they reach a smoother path she moves faster, but just as loudly.

"I was at the library yesterday evening and everything looked normal. But when I went this morning a couple of shelves and several books had mold on them. Ones you might expect to grow mold, left alone long enough, but nothing in this place ever changes." So the books shouldn't have either.

Ellie nods, not that Zelda can see her. "Have you checked anywhere else in the library? Like the basement?" The cordyceps like dead things - Ellie used to think it was only humans and monkeys, but apparently insects did too - and water. Now that she's walked a little and had more time to think about it, she knows that there's no way CBI is going to fucking survive on books.

That doesn't make her any less of an idiot, though. She really, really hopes the fungus didn't come with her.

Right. As a god she's supposed to be able to do things, but she doesn't know how. Ellie considers Zelda for a moment.

"How are gods supposed to do things? I didn't try to make the forest come back, it just happened." It's sort of giving away her position, but Ellie figured the cat was out of the bag, anyway. It's not like she isn't carrying an imposing bow and running around the forest.

"I'm not sure the library has a basement. I never saw anything that looked like stairs, at least..." Even if Ellie wasn't mostly behind her, Zelda has to keep her eyes on the path. There's still more for her to trip on, after all.

"I'm not remotely sure. All I wanted was for the books to come back, so I haven't tried anything beyond that."

"Okay." Ellie sighs. She's probably going to have to go looking for anywhere the cordyceps could be through the city. "I guess I'll try...wishing."

Like that's ever helped her in the past.

As they start approaching the city and having to walk uphill, more signs of habitation start cropping up, including a curious concrete cube in the ground, with no obvious use. It's partly eroded, with ivy and such winding through it, and if Ellie fell in it would be a bit involved trying to get back up, but it wouldn't be dangerous.

It's something to think about later, though. Not now.

As they crest the top of the hill, the whole city is visible below, and the ocean beyond. Ellie stops to watch it. In all this panic and paranoia and upset, she forgot that there's a beach right there.

"I always wanted to visit the beach," She murmurs, almost to herself.

Zelda pauses when she realizes that Ellie has stopped, and looks back at the girl to make sure there's nothing wrong. She follows her gaze to the ocean and smiles.

"It's lovely, isn't it? I'd forgotten what the sea smelled like." She wasn't able to smell anything for a hundred years, and though she's no longer trapped in a self-imposed spiritual prison she and Link had more important things to do with their time than spend a day on the beach. In the bay city she can experience all the sensations she'd been missing all that time.

Ellie glances at Zelda and nods. "Yeah." She lived in Boston before, but she never really got the chance to see the ocean. Just the dirty river. "It's something, alright."

Can't deny that view.

Ellie sighs. "Come on, we can be in the city in twenty minutes if we find the right path." Ellie takes off along the ridge, knowing the trailhead is around here somewhere.

"I'm coming!" She does take a second to breathe in the smell of the wild, though, now that she's thinking about it. Then she races clumsily after Ellie again.

As they walk, Ellie takes in the city. It looks normal to her, but not like it was before.

"I guess this isn't all supposed to be here?" Ellie grimaces at a brick building that's covered in ivy. Even the buildings that aren't covered in plants in her world are run down.

"It isn't," Zelda comments, just a hint of annoyance in her voice. She isn't angry at Ellie, but at the challenge posed by the overgrowth.

"These paths ought to be clear, and so should the buildings."

The library is a little further inside the city, on the edges of what could be considered Downtown. It isn't overgrown yet, at least on the outside.

Walking inside, the woman at the desk welcomes Zelda back and says hello to Ellie, but Zelda walks straight past her with a passing smile and a promise that they'll be just a moment.

It's a small library, fitting the size of the town well, but as stocked as Hyrule's castle. It's a wonder to her to think that the public is so well supplied and educated in this strange world.

She leads the young goddess to a shelf in the corner of the building closest to the city limits, which holds the library's history collection. Once there she crouches to point at the carpet in the very corner of two shelves, a tan off-white speckled with spots of black and the wrong shade of grey. The spines of the nearest books show light dustings of the grey fuzz Zelda had described, mostly at the bottom.

"You see?"

"Look, I didn't mean for it to happen," Ellie snaps, not realizing the sharp tone isn't directed towards her. She doesn't say anything else as they walk to the library, fuming about the situation.

It's jarring to see a full library, though. Ellie's never seen one. The closest, maybe, was in her military school - but those were old textbooks and propaganda books. Nothing that's really interesting to read.

It's one of the rare moments that she keenly knows how much she missed because of the apocalypse.

Still, she saves her oggling of the books for later, and considers the situation at hand.

"Um, yeah..." At least it definitely isn't cordyceps. Ellie picks up one of the books, turning it over to consider the mold.

"Go away. Shoo."

...

That didn't work. "So you just said you wished it, right?" Ellie frowns at the mold. Is there a level to this wishing thing or does it just...happen...

She misses Ellie's fuming in her focus on getting through the brush and back to the library. It's nice to have things to focus on after all those years spent at only one task every hour of every day.

At the library Zelda watches Ellie's process closely, hopefully even. When nothing happens she hums thoughtfully, tapping a finger on her lower lip.

"I suppose it was more like I expected it to happen, based on my observations around town. I haven't tried to do anything else... And it may be that whatever power we have works differently for everyone." She sighs.

"I was rather hoping we'd find ourselves inspired once we got here."

"Maybe just... give me a second." Ellie's never had any weird powers, just a lot of determination.

While she's never prayed, Ellie regularly talks to dead people like they can hear her. Even though they technically can't, it makes her feel less lonely.

So it's sort of the same idea here, right? Expecting the wilderness to hear her, because she's the one who - supposedly - is making it work.

"Expecting doesn't feel right." If Joel were there, he might understand that - you can't expect life to go your way, because that's not how it works. She didn't expect Joel to get better, she made it happen. She doesn't feel like life owes her anything, she just carves her existence out of it.

This stuff owes her nothing - it can't think like that - but Ellie has the power to make it obey her... theoretically.

"Get out of there. A book is the most fucking useless place for you to grow. You're gonna run out of food and water soon and there won't be anywhere else for you to go. Find a nice log or something."

Ellie doesn't even know if that's true, about books being a bad place to grow. Beyond that, she feels stupid, talking to the book.

But the mold starts receeding.

Ellie look a up at Zelda, not as triumphant as grimly determined.

"I think I got it. Are there more corners beyond this one that are fucked up?"

The trouble for Zelda is that she has prayed. Every single day for ten years of her life she prayed, with no result, until it turned to begging and bitterness. Once her power awakened it didn’t work through prayer- it worked through will and a spirituality that had nothing to do with communication. She doesn’t know how to explain that.

Ellie apparently doesn’t need the help though, and Zelda watches raptly as the fungus recedes. Then the girl’s words snap her out of her revery, and she rises to her feet.

“That was incredible! There are a few more spots, but that was the biggest.” She waits for Ellie to get up before leading her to the next cool, neglected corner.

Ellie hesitates a bit, but she ends up relaxing and following Zelda around the library. It feels a bit ridiculous to scold the mold, but it seems to be working.

Zelda's interesting. As they walk around, Ellie finally gets that Zelda doesn't really give a shit about Ellie, and more about the library. That's good. Ellie doesn't want people who pay too much attention to her, or want her for more than her job entails.

As they finish up with the last set of books, Ellie turns to Zelda.

"It's Ellie, by the way. Um, sorry for being an asshole."

Zelda is much pleased by the state they leave the library in once finished, a rare happy expression on her otherwise fairly closed face. She turns to Ellie, her hands clasped in front of her.

"Ellie. I am terribly grateful for your help." She even bows, though it's not very low. Just enough for a princess to a young interim goddess.

"If there is anything I can do to repay you, do not hesitate to ask."

"Erm, yeah. It's fine." Ellie's discomfited by the bowing, and shuffles in place. "...is it okay if I come back here? I've never seen such a full library."

"Oh, of course." Zelda is surprised Ellie even has to ask. "This building is public, it seems. But you are also welcome in my temple, if you like. I'm collecting books there as well."

Ellie just shrugs. Would she probably have come back anyway to get a book or ten? Probably. Still, knowing she won't get chased away is nice.

"Right. We'll see." Ellie pauses. "Hey. Um, if you need me, can you just leave a note at the... my temple, instead of looking for me in the woods?"

Ellie doesn't want to get into all the details of why with Zelda, but she's not a fan of people seeking her out.

Edited 2018-01-13 22:28 (UTC)

It's an odd request, but not really a difficult one. In fact, it would be much easier for everyone if Zelda never had to go traipsing into the woods again looking for someone.

"Yes, of course. Shall I tell the others as well?"

"Yeah, that'd be fine." Ellie shrugs. "I need to, um, talk about some things anyway, on the message network. I guess I could give you that, if you need to talk to me, too?" That seems like less of a risk than the temple, but people know where the temples are, regardless of Ellie's feelings. They'll show up whether she wants them to or not.

"Ah, that's right. The... 'phone' things?" She thinks she has the right word, but it's a totally alien one. She has to check.

"That would be more efficient, wouldn't it." Incredible devices, able to carry messages in the blink of an eye.

"Yeah, here." Ellie pulls hers out and pokes at it, offering the screen to Zelda and rattling off the number. "It seems too big to be a phone, but I guess so?" It does the trick, anyway.

Edited (fever brain = redundancy, wheeee) 2018-01-18 05:13 (UTC)

"Too big?" It seems tiny to her, but it's a rhetorical question. She pulls out her own phone and makes a note of the number. She'll figure out how to save it later.

"Thank you again, Ellie. You've been a great help."

Ellie shrugs, but doesn't explain as Zelda goes on. Sure, the tablet is thin, but it's larger than a walkie-talkie. "Sure, yeah. Um, good luck with everything, Zelda." Ellie returns her tablet to her backpack and hoists it.

"I'm gonna..." Ellie makes a vague gesture back towards the doors. She'll be back soon, but she probably needs to get some things done before she can get any books.

"Safe travels, Ellie." Zelda flashes another smile and raises a hand in farewell.

Ellie gives a nod back and returns the wave, before leaving and going out the doors. She doesn't look back, comfortable that Zelda won't try to attack her.

Gabriel doesn't actually know that plantlife is starting to creep into urban areas generally free of such concerns, because he has yet to venture into the actually civilized parts of civilization. The wilder outskirts feel comfortable, feel like home, and not just because that's where Nathan prefers to be. Of course that's some of it (... a lot of it; Gabriel knows what he is, and that what is, approximately, stricken with a terminal case of twitterpation), but--he's a black witch too. He's always going to be more at ease under an open sky, the horizon split by green rather than blocked out in pillars of tall grey concrete.

All of this is to say that they walk very similarly, and as such soundlessly, meaning they are far too close than Gabriel would normally let himself get without warning by the time he realizes he's not entirely alone; it's been one hell of a couple of days, so probably he can be forgiven for still trying to find his rhythm here. Light picking up the red notes in auburn hair is actually what catches him out of the very corner of his peripheral vision, that flash of bright amidst all the green. If it were a Hunter, he reasons, he probably wouldn't have caught even so much as that, visually (invisibility is cheating, you jerks) and they haven't encountered a single one here besides, and yet.

And yet. Old habits die hard, especially when that habit is "never relax or you will die!!!!!"

Nathan would blend in with his surroundings and watch for a while, like the sharp-toothed, sharp-eyed predator he can become, but Gabriel is a little too much person for that. (There is some metaphorical commentary to be made on their respective gifts there, but this tag is already too long.) He doesn't actually pull his gun as he steps into relative visibility, but it's within easy distance of the hand he has tucked into his jacket.

His accent lilts upward, light and close to French without being precisely that. (Assuming that means ....anything to his new acquaintance here; it's just obvious he's not American.)

"Are you lost?"

She doesn't look lost, but it sounds pleasant enough! At the least it's a better opener than some boyfriends would give her; Gabriel's involves many fewer knives.

The accent is bizarre, and means nothing to Ellie. She's never heard it before, and if it were any other situation, she would ask him questions.

Instead, Ellie freezes, recognizing the stance. Again, she curses the fact that she left her gun behind. She'd just set it down for a moment while hoisting her backpack, but a moment was enough to take her to a new fucking world.

Her hand is in her pocket, though, and Ellie grips her knife hard. She worries that moving will get him to draw the gun on her, and there's some saying about knife fights or gun fights that might work here, but Ellie can't remember how it goes.

"No," Ellie snaps, still and enraged, because who the fuck is this asshole to come and threaten her. "The fuck are you doing here?"

Please tell her it's not someone else looking for the fucking wilderness god.

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2! at clearly a totally different place and time than zelda

are you talking to me about long tags