THE BOOKS OF MAGIC [modplot]

[letsgolegion]

Who| Everyone who signed up
What| The Books of Magic Plot
Where| All over the DC Universe
When| The same time as "Out With the Old"
Warnings/Notes| N/A

Their mission had brought them to Sorceror's World, which led to their first lead -- a strange artifact that, if completed, would allow them to find how the Spectre had been imprisoned the first time. After the golden device had been activated and revealed this, they all suddenly found themselves teleported in teams of two to new locations.

Strange, weird, and magical new locations.

Comments

[meanmonkey]

Monkey managed to land on her feet, but in a less-than-dry spot. She wrinkles her nose and shakes mud off her hands before moving towards Kubo.

"Ugh, they couldn't have dropped us somewhere not covered in mud?" She huffs irritatedly and offers Kubo a hand to try to pull him upright. "It's filthy."

[themightybeetle]

Beetle - fresh from recovery - managed to settle on his feet as well. For a moment. He then promptly stumbled with a 'woah!', but managed to keep from falling over.

"Ah- perfect landing."

Nobody here to tell him otherwise, right? Straightening up, he looked back over to where Monkey was helping Kubo pull out of the mud, and took the opportunity as he moved over to the two to take a look around. Trees, everywhere...

"I don't know, it looks pretty nice to me," he mused. "You think anyone's around?"

[bachido]

"I can't see anyone," Kubo said, but really, if Beetle didn't see anything from his height, what was Kubo going to see half-immersed in the mud?

He tugged back on his mother's hand and, after a moment of strained pulling and awkward noises from the mud, came free onto the relatively dry land. The skintight Legion uniform he wore under his Beetle Clan robe was water resistant enough that he was still fairly dry under all the mud, but one foot was bare.

"It took my sandal," he objected, looking into the mud to see if he could rescue his shoe.

[letsgolegion]

There is singing off in the distance.

Or maybe it's the sound of woodwinds on the breeze.

Maybe it's both.

[meanmonkey]

Monkey stands up again, turning her head this way and that to determine where the sound might be coming from. She's on edge already, and mysterious music doesn't make her much happier with the situation.

"Do you hear that? We should be careful."

[themightybeetle]

It's a nice sound, whatever it is. Beetle takes a look in the mud, a look at Kubo, and then promptly picks up the boy to place on his shoulders. No sandal? No problem.

"We'll get you another one," he promises, horned head swinging to look back towards Monkey. "May as well go see what it is, right?"

Don't mind him (and Kubo), just casually trying to find where the source is.

[bachido]

Kubo had been pushing up his sleeve to stick his arm down the mudhole, but well, that worked too!

He giggled, delighted as Beetle placed him on his shoulders, adjusting his position so that he could still keep his hands on his shamisen while he rode. This was a lot better than slogging through the swamp with one sandal. Not just because it took a lot less effort to ride on Father's shoulders than to slog through mud, but because up here, he could see a lot farther, hear a lot better. He could do a better job of paying attention for threats, and spotting them before they made it to his family.

"It sounds beautiful," he said, heeding the wind that might have been music. He played a few complimentary chords, and three sheets of paper flew from his pack in the form of birds to circle with them. He kept playing, his music harmonizing with what he heard of the distant sound. Better to have his paper ready, just in case they were ambushed, even if whatever might ambush them made beautiful sounds.

[letsgolegion]

The music Kubo plays attracts something's attention.

It watches them from the trees. And the ground. It watches them from under the mud. It's everywhere and therefore it can watch them from everywhere.

Suddenly, something starts to rise out of the mud in front of them, a creature made of vines and leaves and algae and swamp muck. It forms itself from the living plant matter of the swamp, and stares them down.

It doesn't attack but they have to decide whether or not to attack it.

[meanmonkey]

Monkey doesn't attack, either, but she does unsheathe her sword and put herself between Kubo and the mud creature.

She is letting nothing hurt her son, if she has anything to say about it.

"Stay back, Kubo," she orders. "We don't know if it's dangerous." She's pretty much assuming it is.