Roleplay: Welcome to the Ether Forest (Free Join)

Overview
Rumors have spread about a mysterious forest filled with strange flora, paranormal activity, and brimming with strange energy. This is the Ether Forest, home to the Magic spirits and their guardian... Will your character brave this new terrain? What will they find, and what will they do...?

Rules

 * 1. Standard roleplaying ettiquete applies. No godmodding, powerplaying, autohitting, killing characters without permission, etc.
 * 2.Keep it PG-13. No sex, no excessive cussing. Crap, damn, and hell are acceptable.
 * 3. Please, put some effort into your posts. Novel format if possible.
 * (Example: "Oh, hello Sonic! How's your day?" Tails asked. "Not bad..." Sonic replied.)
 * 4.Have fun!

Participants

 * Lunari64 (Owner)
 * Joshua the Hedgehog (Participant)
 * Jared (Participant.)
 * vitom
 * NTH (Participant)
 * DeathstroketheHedgehog

Heroes
(Those who want to protect the Ether Forest from any evildoers.)
 * Io the Cat (Lunari64) (A cat controlled by two Magic Spirits. She protects the Ether Forest.)
 * Joshua Zephyrius (He wants to protect the forest for the sake of a new friend.)

Good Neutral
(Those who want to both protect and explore the forest.)
 * Esme The Hedgecat (RedRush3999) (She records all of the events in her journal while also preventing evil-doers from exploiting or destroying the forest.)
 * Novo the Hedgehog (NTH) (For three reasons: One,he likes traveling and exploring places.Two,he heard of rumors about spirits and the forest's guardian and decides to investigate. Three,he's trying to stop Dr. Conquers from taking over the forest.)
 * Hugh the wolf (vitom) (begins investigating the anomolies to write in a journal but begins to desire to protect it)

Neutral
(Those who only want to explore the Ether Forest, and see what it has to offer.)
 * Amanda (She is a villain, but witches are usually tree huggers. )
 * Magical Grief (Amanda's nephew and sidekick, he's a half-witch who has some really bizzare powers.)
 * Joshua Sentrium Burns (Obvious User is Obvious) (Wants to explore the forest.)
 * Midnight the Mercenary (DeathstroketheHedgehog) (Will destroy the forest if it is in the way, but otherwise is looking for a Green Chaos Emerald)

Villians
(Those who want to harm or exploit the Ether Forest and it's residents.)
 * Dr. Conquers the Squirrel (Has heard about the rumors of the Ether Forest and seeks to make it part of his empire

Part One
On a foggy, yet warm spring morning, the sun rose over the Ether Forest. From the outside, the forest looked completely normal, but something was strange. Rumors were starting to circulate about what lay in the deepest parts of these woods....

Amanda and Grief
Amanda was heading towards the forest while leading her young nephew Grief behind him. The two witches were naturally attracted and intrigued by the mystical energy that filled the land with such an wondrous occult odor that both their highly sensitive magical smelling noses could easily smell.

The two might feel like they're being watched, too.

"Do you feel that, deaire?" Amanda asked the child.

"Yeah! I feel like I'm getting the heebie jeebies!" the child replied.

"Si, best stick close to me, dearie.." She replied back to the child.

Around them, the forest was quite beautiful. The trees were bright and lively, some crawling with vines. The underbrush wasn't too thick, so it was easy to walk through. The two might hear faint whispering. Was someone there?

Both foxes ears perked up naturally as the adult fox put her finger over her mouth to signify for the child to be quiet, while he nodded in response. They kept quiet and both listened in.

"What is going on here?" One voice whispered. "Relax, let's go check." Another replied. The two foxes might smell more of the magic energy- and it was close.

Meanwhile, near the two foxes, something peeked out from the leaves, in the next tree over. It was a spirit, a young girl. She stared a little bit, before waving.

"Uhh, over there." The child said as he tugged unto the cape of the adult fox and she looked in the direction of the spotted girl.

The girl smiled, in a friendly manner. "Hello!" She greeted Amanda and the child.

"Ciao." Amanda replied back

"That means hi." Grief informed.

The spirit girl nodded. "Who are you?" She asked the two of them.

"Amanda Moscati, e mio nepote, Griefan Moscati." The lady replied.

"Call me Grief." The child interupted.

"Si, call him the sadness." The aunt joked as she rubbed his head.

The girl didn't seem to underatand the joke, but smiled nonetheless. "Nice to meet you, my name's Aster!"

"Nice to be meeting you, stella." The adult lady replied.

The two might see not too far away, a group of cabins was occupying a clearing in the woods. They all seemed abandoned and lifeless.

"Look aunt Amanda, a town!" Grief said as he tugged on her cape.

"Si! Perhaps we be going there?" Amanda asked Grief.

"Why not?" Grief replied while nodding his head.

The girl chuckled slightly at this, before leading them to the cabins.

The two followed behind the girl seemingly oblivious to the errie and creepy nature of the town. It was as if the two were used to living in some isolated areas within the woods. Amanda merely grabbed the child's hand and led him behind her as the followed the girl.

The group of cabins was barely even a neighborhood, it was merely a small colony. It only had room for a few families.

The girl seemed right at home among the two, since they were both very comfortable with the atmosphere here. She was starting to wonder why they weren't freaked out by her.

"So, who all lives here?" The young boy fox asked the little girl.

"Nobody, actually; this place was abandoned ages ago. Sometimes we have visitors like you, who stay here for a night or two at a time, but nobody's actually lived here for centuries.

"Who watches over the place?" Grief asked.

"Well, all of us spirits do; mostly, our guardian Io. T-She's super sweet..." The girl explained, awkwardly correcting herself.

"You are the spirit of the forest?" Amanda asked

"Is that like a tree ghost?" Grief asked

"No dearie." Amanda replied.

The girl snickered at Grief's question, meanwhile nodding to Amanda. "Yes indeed, there are many forest spirits here."

"Si, and mio nepote e myself are both witches." Amanda informed them.



(Why, Jared? -Luna)

The girl's face lit up with excitement. "Oh, I see! You'll fit in here great, then. These cabins were home to mystics and mages of the sort, from all over the world."

(Fitting~Jared)

"Muy bene." Amanda said as she grinned rather pleasingly.

"Can I have their stuff?" Grief asked

The girl looked quesrioningly at Grief.

"Well, can I? I need to practice my magic." The child replied.

"Well, there is some tools left behind from the mystics that used to live here, you may use them if you like. There's potions left as well, but nobody dares touch them because they were foolishy left unlabeled." The girl explained, leading them to one of the larger cabins.

"Meaning no touch the potions dearie, you remember what happened last time." The woman said as she stared at the child.

"Heh heh, yeah. Well at least I got some cool powers out of it aunt Amanda." The child replied.

"Luck shouldn't be relied upon dearie, your good fortune can only go so far." She replied back to him.

"Anyways, most of the stuff was left behind in here. Go ahead, explore to your heart's content." The girl told them, leading them to the front door of the cabin.

"Grazie" The lady said as she opened the door.

The spirit waved goodbye, before floating off.

"Arrivderci!" Amanda said

"Bye bye!" Gried said as he waved.

Inside, the house was old looking, and dusty. Nobody had stayed in there for a long time.

"Hmm, this casa could be usin the touch up." Amanda said.

"I'll say!" Grief replied.

They had seemingly walked into a kitchen/dining room, looking mostly bare, except for the table, counter, and cupboards.

"Do not be touching the rotten food deaire, if you are hungry we will find something fresher." The lady replied to the child.

"Okay." Grief replied.

Yet, there wasn't any food left in the house; just the potions, which were in a different room.

"Hmm, go be looking around to find any books we can be using, dearie." Amanda asked her nephew.

"Alright." Grief said as he moved into the other room while Amanda began cleaning.

The other room seemed to be a storage room of sorts, wit all of the left over mystic tools inside. There were staffs, potions and everything to make them (besides the ingredients), a scrying bowl, and, in the corner, some small books in a pile.

"Jackpot!" Grief let out as he smiled.

The staffs looked hand-made from branches, and the books appeared to be about potions, with the one on top being a notebook someone had written about the forest spirits.

"Well this stuff looks harmless. I'm sure aunt Amanda won't  get mad if I just take a look at least." Grief said as he shrugged and proceeded to walk over and open up a book.

It was the notebook, describing the the types of spirits among them, and how they lived their lives.

"Huh? This is about that girl?" Grief said as he began to read it.

Indeed, it was; based on the descriptions, she seemed to be an elemental spirit, perhaps a fire or light spirit.

"A fire and spirit huh? She must be bright." Grief said as he red onwards.

The book also described that there were day and night spirits, each with their own ruler.

"So they're like tribal elementals huh? Hmmm.." Grief said to himself as he read onwards.

There were more than just elemental spirits, too; there were warriors who protected the forest from danger, visionaries who could sense the use of magic anywhere in the forest, messengers who could traverse the forest at top speed, and more still.

"So that's what I've been feeling when aunt Amanda brought us here? Huh, I'd better tell her of this." Grief said as he put down the notes.

Yes, the spirits had been watching him, that's what he had been feeling.

"Hey aunt Amanda! I've found something!" Grief said as he walked into the kitchen that was being touched up by Amanda.

"Si? And what would that being mio nepote?" Amanda asked as she turned and looked at him.

"I've found out that we've been watched by the spirits!" Grief replied.

"Grief, we are witches, we're always being watched by the spirits." Amanda replied as she grinned in a rather amused tone.

"No, I mean the spirits of this forest, they are like a bunch of tribes and they've been watching us like the girl was." Grief replied

"Ah, si si." Amanda said as she shook her head.

Then, they might notice that someone, likely one of the spirits, had left some flowers at the front door for them. How sweet.

Joshua
Joshua was one of the people who heard of these rumors. He decided to see if this was true. He starts getting his equipment ready, for any potential dangers.

Unbeknownst to him, this forest was actually very calm; very few monsters of the sort lurked around inside.

He begins his journey to the forest. Eventually, he arrives at one part of it.

The air was fresh, and smelled intoxicatingly of fruit. Joshua might get the feeling that he's being watched.

He gets the feeling of being watched. However, he foolishly shrugs it off, as he entered the forest.

As he entered, he might hear the rustling of leaves, as if something was darting between trees.

Hugh wandered the forest in hopes to find at least one thing supernatural. Hugh suddenly heard a noise and ran to it. Seconds later Hugh ran into Joshua. "Hey sorry 'bout that."

Joshua was encountered by Hugh, he is surprised. "Whoa. Where did you come from?"

After waiting for a bit for a response for Hugh, but nothing, He walked off, wandering deeper into the Forest.

When Joshua walked in, he might start to see something strange. On the ground, there were faint, glowing lines, made into patterns. They looked like runes of some sort.

He noticed the glowing line/runes. "...What in the..."

The leaves began to rustle again, when suddenly a face peeked out at him from the branches. It was a teen boy, a ghost like the others.

(Did the Ghost reveal himself to Joshua? Just askin')

(Yep! -Luna)

(Kay's)

He seemed rather watchful around himself once he heard the rustling from the leaves. The fact that the ghost Boy had revealed himself to him, had left him surprised. "....AH."

The boy waved, trying not to laugh. He seemed friendly.

He looked at the boy, slightly waving back, In both confusion and surprised. "Ah... Hi?"

The boy seemed curious about him. "Who are you?"

"My name is Joshua Sentrium Burns. And you would be...?"

"My name's Herb. What brings you here?" Herb asked. He started to walk along, as if asking Joshua to follow.

He followed him. "I heard rumors of this place, I wanted to see it for myself."

Herb smiled. "That's neat!"

"Indeed." He replied.

Herb led him to the same river where Hugh was, though much further downstream. More spirits were there, happily gpojg about their day.

He noticed the spirits at the river. He immediately took an interest in them. "Hm... Interesting."

Herb snickered. A few more child spirits came to see him, looking at him curiously.

He noticed the chat spirits approach him. "Um... Hi." His Military Equipment (I.E, his Plasma Rifle, Sword Handle, and Jetpack, along with his BFT-HUD) could been seen, btw.

Some of the children stared at his equipment, and backed away skittishly. Others began to float towards where Hugh was.

He tilted his head slightly when some of them backed away. "Is something wrong?"

They shook their heads no, before joining the others going upstream.

He watched as they went upstream. "...I could have sworn that they were afraid something..."

The older spirits were left now, most of them bowing and curtsying politely.

"..Hmm... I see the older ones are still here.. Greetings."

"Greetings!" Many of the spirits waved to him.

He waved slightly back at them. "I am quite curious.. why did the younger ones go ahead upstream when I arrived?"

"I don't know..." One of the ladies responded, trying to spot what they were so excited about. "Huh. I think there's more guests up there. It may not seem like it now, but we rarely get any visitors from the outside."

He thought: "It appears I might not be the only visitor in this forest... Wait..." He asked the lady "Why is it that this forest doesn't get alot of visitors?"

"Very few people know about this forest... or so we thought. It seems like more people are learning about this place lately..." The woman answered.

"I see.... I assume that would be a... Well, not bad, or good thing."

"Exactly. Fortunately, most of the people coming in have been quite friendly." The woman agreed.

"That is a good thing. Let us hope that no one with bad intentions arrives at this forest."

"Thank you..."

Novo (Closed)
Novo stands on a tree branch and closes his eyes to focus sensing on whatever mysterious force is ahead.

"This energy is unlike any other chakra I sensed...just what is this...?"

(Sorry for the wait reply, everyone. o3o')

(Np, sorry for mine ^^;- Luna)

The energy he was sensing was very balanced and delicate, very peculiar.

Esme (Closed)
Esme is lying in a tree, writing in her journal just outside of a mysterious waterfall.

Esme might soon hear leaves rustling higher up in the tree. It sounded like something was up there...

Esme is suddenly hearing rustling on top of the trees. "Huh? What is...that?" she replied, a little nervous.

Esme might see... something dart from branch to branch. It was hard to tell what it was.

"Uh, someone t-there?" she asks meekly as she sits up.

Then, two people poked their heads out from the leaves, to look at Esme. They were both spirits, two girls. "Hello!"

Esme is at first a little startled but is then relieved when she sees the two girls. "H-Hello there...Um....Pardon me....But, a-are y-you two spirits?" she asks with a shy look on her face.

The two both nod. They look similar, almost like twins. "What's your name?" One of them asked.

"Esme The Hedgecat...." she responds with a meek but cheerful tone in her voice.

Hugh (Closed)
Hugh wandered the forest in hopes to find at least one thing supernatural. Hugh suddenly heard a noise and ran to it. Seconds later Hugh ran into Joshua. "Hey sorry 'bout that."

Joshua was encountered by Hugh, he is surprised. "Whoa. Where did you come from?"

After waiting for a bit for a response for Hugh, but nothing, He walked off, wandering deeper into the Forest.

Hugh quietly pulled out his journal as soon as he saw the creature in hopes of observing it and coming up with a name. But quickly he tripped on a tree stumps and landed in a river in front of Esme.

The river was shallow, and rocky. Spirits were all over the place; some of the children were hovering over him, curiously.

"Hmmm interesting," Hugh suddenly grabbed his journal on the banks of a river and wrote in it. "What are these creatures?" Quickly Hugh fell uncaucious.

An elder spirit came over to Hugh, and shooed away the children. He knelt down next to him, and drew a healing rune in an attempt to wake him up.

Hugh slowly opened his eyes. "What the, whats going on?" The wolf asked.

The spirit sighed in relief. "I think you passed out, lad. Don't worry, we won't bite. What's your name?"

"Hugh Maximoff the wolf, I came here to study the supernatural." Hugh replied.

The spirit chuckled at this. "Well, you came to the right place. My name's Adam."

"Nice to meet you but I have to go."' The wolf said walking away

"I see. Well, have fun!" Adam replied.

Hugh ran to Esme. "Hey Es," Hugh said.

Midnight
"The energy is getting more powerful here," Midnight said to himself. "The emerald has to be well deep into this forest. It's energy, however, seems... off. Maybe it's because I haven't slept for a couple of days."

Midnight continued on through the forest, casually jumping off of the sides of the trees with his feet as he reached the center. Then his eye-patch showed an individual perched in a tree. This individual seemed like some type of ninja to Midnight. He stood there, seemingly looking into nothing.

Or is he sensing the energy as I can? He thought. He didn't plan on losing the possible Chaos Emerald to him, so he kept watch over this ninja, and teleported in a taller tree right above him.

Midnight's soul-detecting eyepatch would be showing a lot more souls in the vicinity, though they were all very strange. ''What was going on here? This is nothing like the other emeralds at all.''

Midnight looked over at the ninja for a brief moment. I'll be back for you later, he said to himself before letting curiosity show him who these individuals were.

The souls were scattered throughout the forest, "ghosts" if you will. They were all different, boys and girls, of all different species and ages.

Midnight stood there, slightly frustrated that he could not look at these spirits with awe, as he has seen crazier things before. Then an idea popped into his head. Maybe these things could help me find the emerald, but first I need make my presence known. He walked into an open area of the forest, where most if not all the spirits could see him.

And, most of the spirits did see him, though the one who came out of hiding was a bit... different. A living cat stepped out of the underbrush, curiously staring at Midnight with her heterochromic eyes. Now, his eye patch would be showing him something even stranger; two spirits, superimposed one over the other. "Hello..." She greeted him, seeming cautious.

Midnight, eyed this cat suspiciously, confused at what he was seeing.

It can't be an error in my patch, it has the power of Chaos that makes it work... just who exactly are... they? Midnight took a defensive position, but in such a way that it would appear to the average creature would assume he just shifted his weight.

"I need your help," he said to the cat..or cats, while casually placing his left hand over his blaster.

The girl seemed to perk up slightly at this. "Oh? With what?" She asked. She seemed friendly, and peaceful, though she was holding a wooden staff.

Novo
The ninja-hog opens his eyes and leaps from tree to tree in search for something.

"...now,where's that Ariados Bot...?" he says silently to himself.

Spirits spotted him, and waved as he passed, but did nothing to stop him.

Hugh and Esme
"Nice to meet you!" The spirits responded in sync, before they noticed Hugh. "Huh? Who's that?"

Esme turned to see Hugh and waved to him as she then wrote in her journal. "Oh, hey Hugh! Long time, no see!"

"Seems you encountered the forest spirits." Hugh said.

The twin girls waved to Hugh before dissapearing higher into the tree.

Hugh pulled out his journal and wrote a page on forest spirits based on observations.

Joshua Zephyrius
All of a sudden, a green-haired man emerged from thin air after a warpdrive sequence. He skid across the grassy field in the midst of the forest's clearing. After he finally stopped, he looked around to see where he is.

"Hmm," he mouthed. "It seems there was an interference in the sequence." He took a better look around him. The healthy trees, the dancing grass, and the soothing sound of the winds captured his attention. "Nevertheless, I shall stay awhile. Speaking of which, this area is awfully familiar..."

A few spirits were hiding in the trees, watching him carefully.