From the Eastern Country

[blueeyedmother]

[OOC: When replying, please include the time of day.. morning, noon, evening, night.. that your character is coming. It will effect the outcome.]

It's hard to say when it happened, overnight or in the wee-hours of the morning, but at some point a portion of the plaza was hung in webbing that strung like spun glass across the facades and alleys. Small beads of crystalline material hung from the webbing like drops of dew on the workings of a spider at sunrise. As the breeze touched the layers of webbing the glass tinkled like chimes but there's an undertone of wailing and human cries in the sound. It's a ghostly sound of unknown origin.

However, on closer inspection of the web one could find skeletons hung, barren bones held in their natural position by more glass webbing. It almost looks like a crypt shrine for the dead in some church under tunnels, though these appear to be only the bones of large mammals instead of humans. The scene under sun or light throws shadows and reflections across the plaza. The glittering like light through a sun catcher dazzling a million colors across the ground and buildings across the street.

The approach of a person is what starts the whispering. "Where has mother gone?" repeated over and over in hundreds of voices from within the webbing. Slowly, tentatively, spiderlings come out the size of a human hand and shaped like orb weaving spiders. However, they are nearly transparent and as they move mirrored sections appear and disappear on the surface of their bodies.

"Where has mother gone?" They ask again in a chorus of eerie voices that are accompanied by human like blue eyes staring expectantly, with hope, at whomever is listening.

Comments

[skeksisheretic]

Normally people are scared of spiders, especially a seemingly hive-minded chorus of hand-sized spiders. But skekGra isn't a human person, and he knows that not everything unsettling at first glance is bad. The bones he sees as explores that night aren't lost on him, but so is the fact that none of them are human or any intelligent species he recognizes. They may be predators, but he's hopeful that he won't be seen as prey. The Wanderer shuffles along beside him, looking over the eerie webs.

skekGra and urGoh have talked to the Arathim Ascendancy, which is unsettling and alien even by Thra standards but not evil - the Arathim's aggression came from legitimate grievances deep in Thra's history, and they had been tricked by the Skeksis along with everyone else. The Arathim who live in the Nexus settled in peace. He wonders if he should introduce them to these new spiders.

"Hello there, young ones. I am skekGra the Heretic."

"And I...am urGoh...the Wanderer." The Wanderer shuffles forward, trying to get a closer look at the strange creatures. Not Arathim, obviously, but these alien glassy spiders could easily be mistaken for them.

"Don't be afraid," says the old Skeksis, lowering his voice. "We don't mean you any harm. We don't know where your mother is, but we have some good friends who are a lot like you."

[tr1ckortreat]

Loki was out on one of his midnight strolls through the Plaza since he often favoured nightly walks during the summer months. It was cooler at night and his eyes had adjusted to the shadows, making it easier to move undetected, as he was often used to. Yet, this night he hadn't expected to meet a rather many-legged friend.

The whisper could be heard with the god's sharp hearing. As for the words themselves, they caused his eyebrows to knot into a frown. What did they mean? Why was the spider here? Loki was not afraid of the spider, since he had often taken the form of many arachnid over his years. Mostly to annoy others out of sheer mischief but the form had served him well amongst others. Walking closer, he placed both hands behind his back, cocking his head to the side slightly, a small smirk spreading over his face.

"Well now, what do we have here? Aren't you a curious thing. Why are you asking for your mother?"

[welcomingembrace]

It is a calm evening when Death strolls through the Nexus. She likes this time of day, when the shadows have claimed the land. And there is darkness all around. It is this time of day that suits her personality best.

She noticed the webbing first. And tilted her head at the sound that it made when the breeze touched it slightly. Ghostly.

Death smiles. She is not bothered by the barren bones that she might find. It was part of the cycle to come upon such signs of her legacy after all.

When the whispering starts, Death stops and taps her umbrella against the ground a few times. She watches as the spiderlings come out to approach her. And she kneels down to be at their level.

"I have not seen your mother."

[chiaro_oscuro]

Ben Solo occasionally wanders the Plaza in the morning, and quickly notices the eerie webs on this particular visit. He knows what spiders are, but whatever made these was no ordinary spider. The webs make a strange sound in the wind, there are skeletons of various animals hanging in them, and are bigger and thicker than any cobweb.

The skeletons are the most unsettling part. Ben's not in the mood to be anybody's breakfast, least of all a spider's. Still, none of the bones are human, so he hopes that any thoughts of fighting will be unnecessary. They hopefully are intelligent enough to tell sentient creatures apart from food. Besides, he doesn't know if the bones strung in the web were from prey that was captured and sucked dry or just happened to be there by coincidence.

The creatures asking for their mother is strange, on the other hand, but at least it's not a threat. The spiderlings aren't moving to attack. But if these are only baby spiders, the mother must be much bigger - and, he realizes with a nervous glance, that might be where the skeletons came from. Part of the natural cycle, and it's really no different from him hunting in the Wilds or tucking into a meal at a Nexus restaurant, but the jumpiness comes with being in a predator's territory.

"Your mother isn't here." He consciously holds still, despite caution and distrust. Not going to start something when there's no need. Best to talk first, and the spiders are clearly intelligent enough to use human speech. "But you'll be safe here, I think."

[ginger_firebird]

Well, this certainly isn't ominous. The calm quiet of the early morning is a fine time for him to go out and enjoy some fresh air. He even wears the mask down along his face, permitting himself he small chance to see the world unclouded by the orange lenses. What he sees...

Mantis is at least certain to not touch the webs. They look like glass, sound like glass, but that wailing noise is a deterrent from the odd beauty of how the bones are scattered about. The horror story feel of the scene doesn't bother him, or at least, it doesn't bother him the way that makes him feel in danger. Spiders, especially the kind like the orb weavers, aren't terrifically dangerous.

Mantis calmly offers a hand towards one of the baby spiders. He came into the world and lost his mother quickly. He can only imagine what might have happened to the mother of these creatures. "Mother isn't here. You might be on your own."

[theredprince]

Jalen is absolutely one hundred percent a Grade A coward. Well, perhaps a Grade B. He's a little braver then he was a few months ago. Being on an adventure with frequent attacks by the undead do have a tendency to numb you to certain things. And he's certainly gotten better at faking courage at the very least.

But do you know what he's NOT ready to deal with? A bunch of human eyed giant spiders asking about their mother in a web full of bones.

This. Is not a thing he wants to deal with. Not now, not ever.

"Nope!" he throws his hands up, "Nope nope nooope."

He turns on his heel and swiftly walks back from whence he came. Let someone else deal with the weird mutant spiders. Because it's not gonna be him.

[bloodofavalon]

It's late evening and just after moonrise when Mordred ventures out into the plaza draped in a long, dark green cloak. He prefers moving about the Nexus at this time. There are fewer people, and strange magics begin singing in the air as night falls and the strange collections of constellations and celestial bodies in the multiversal skies begin slotting into their seasonal positions. A strange power is written into this place during the day, by at night it almost feels close to the Mists of Avalon and those Mysteries contained within them, ripe for the uncovering.

So, despite never having seen such an unusual display of shimmering and glasslike spiderwebs like the ones before him now, Mordred is unsurprised by the sight. Merely curious. He's confident enough in his own power and ability to connect with the strange and unknowable that the wailing and bones threaded throughout the area earn only a single raised eyebrow.

When the spiders come close, Mordred watches them for a moment, studying the strange shifting moonlit brightness on each arachnid's back, before crouching to bring himself down nearer to their level.

"I don't know. I've only just come to this place." A beat. "Perhaps you'll have to learn to manage without her." It's not a taunt, but advice that he suspects enough of the softer peoples of the Nexus would be reluctant to offer. Sometimes the truths worth knowing are harsh.

[alittlehinky]

Cricket is always up early. He starts his morning with feeding the chickens and the calves, checks the garden, and loads up a wagon for his closest early-morning deliveries of product. He has a bicycle hooked up to a kind of trailer now, for small moonshine deliveries, and that's what he was riding when he entered the plaza.

His rounds take him close to the webbed section of the plaza; he'd have liked to have gone through that area to get to his destination. He can go around if he must, but the moment he hears the tinkling sounds of the chimes, the hairs rise on the back of his neck. This strikes him as something supernatural, too eerie to be his business, per se, but when he sees the bones strung up in the web, he can't turn away and pretend he didn't see it. He's got to at least double-check and make sure they don't belong to anyone he might have known.

Thus, the sky overhead is still grey and pearly when he enters the network of glittering crystal and bone, but the reflections make it dazzling nonetheless.

The whispering question makes him want to turn and run, but oddly the appearance of the spiderlings is...well, reassuring isn't the word, but at least there are living creatures asking the question, not ghosts or the wind whistling through the bones.

Spiders. That Micolash fellow was obsessed with a spider-looking kinda creature, as he recalls, but his drawings looked nothing like these. They're creepy, but beautiful. More so with those humanoid eyes.

Cricket is in general surprisingly comfortable with the world beyond humanity breaking through the shell of the mundane. He was fine with the star spirits, as comfortable talking to Winter as any human should be, and Loki has a part of his heart that he fully intends to let him keep. It comes almost naturally to try to converse with these creatures, whatever they are.

"Whose, yours or mine?" He asks, standing still with his arms at his sides and spread slightly to show he's not carrying anything to hurt them. "Mine ain't ever been here. She died when I was little."

"Don't know about yours, but if you wanna tell me about her, maybe I can look for her?" Even as he says it, it occurs to him that's probably a bad idea, but it's too late to take it back.

[multiversal_science]

Now when most people see spiderwebs that large strung up over chunks of the plaza they're probably asking themselves 'what car sized spider has moved here and how many dimensions away do I have to move to Never interact with it'. It's a perfectly reasonable and sane thought process to have. There'a a Reason people fear spiders.

When Doctor Octavius sees webbing like that, however, pride demands she investigate in kind. The dangers hinted at with those skeletons though means she will not be investigating without precaution. She's suited up in her full protective gear as she steps lightly toward the thickest bit of the webbing draped over an alleyway, humming a little tune under her breath.

She's waited until nearly dusk to proceed, well after most of the foot traffic has gone from the Plaza. She has an image to maintain here, after all. If a Pesky spider person shows she'd rather not become a spectacle. What she finds though is not at all what she would have expected when she went looking for 'Spider People'. Unless one Peter Parker has fornicated with some experimental spider, in which case...ew.

This.

This was not the expected outcome. Just how many are there...?

"Fascinating." Horrifying. "Did she leave you here, little ones?"