Duty Session 118: Bun-Bun Festival

    Outside of the root town, an expanse of farmland has been left barren, and the Landers have set up for the festival, drawing adventurers with the promise of a banquet... Mizuki waits by a questgiver NPC, putting a call out on her chimlinks. She doesn't want to miss the seasonal event!

    Mizuki greets the respondants as they gather. As the event begins, the landers move into action: "This way!" One of them calls out, motioning towards the gathered Adventurers. "We need to plant these herbs as quickly as we can. The smell of them summons the bun-buns!"

    Mizuki's tail goes bushy at the thought of summoning more of those deadly, ravenous creatures. "Are these... some kind of friendly bunbuns...?" Well, the event is proceeding anyway, so she uses earth magic to quickly plow furrows.

Goldenblade has been looking forward to doing the seasonal event. She's done quite a few of the one-off events. They were pretty tough, so this one, she's pretty confident on. She nods about helping the landers, and will use a powerful stomp to turn up the earth in a line away from her foot, stomping, moving along, stomping, turning up the earth in great amounts.

"All bunbuns are friendly bunbuns," Prophylaxis, renowned doctor and apparent bunbun lover, says from nearby. He's, unfortunately, not that great at this whole 'field prep' thing, but it looks like he's prepared to do his best to capture tiny hopping rabbit-shaped things and keep them FOREVER.

Or maybe that net and those cages he's got nearby are just... for show? For selling captured buns as pets? What kind of nefarious plot is he up to...!?

Hisame looks really confused at the idea, "Wait we need to plant them to lure them out? Not just.. set them out or something?" Seeming genuinely confused, but she shrugs it off. Clearly it's video game logic and it's not worth getting hung up on. Instead she puts her job to use, helping set the eplants up in the dirt properly.

As she's working, she waves to the others, recognizing some, but not all.

    "I've had my arm chewed off twice now." Mizuki observes to prophy, raising her right hand and wiggling her fingers.

    And then the bunbuns appear from the distance. Popping up from where you didn't see a bunbun a moment before, Making an ominous humming noise.

    Mizuki flinches as they approach, but the leader of the Landers doesn't seem concerned, instead shouting "Let's round up as many as we can!" And there are cages and pens set up made from wire and wood...

    Mizuki stays behind the cages and calls out, "Heeeere, bunny! Gooood bunny! Umm..." She starts singing, "o/~ Little bunbun foo-foo, hopping through the forest, following the landers, getting in the pens! Little bunbun foo-foo, not biting our limbs off, being well behaved, and getting in the pens..."

Goldenblade laughs wryly at Prophylaxis. "Oh, you poor deluded fool," she sighs. "You haven't seen the Bunbuns I have. /Huge/ teeth, /waves/ of devouring mouths. Small individually, but savage, and when they form a swarm, deadly, and carnivorous as any tiger you care to name." She's ... not particularly skilled in this part of the event, chasing around the baited bunbuns and capturing them by leaving the cage open and slashing with her sword all around the bunbuns, such that its only escape is into the cage. Strangely, perhaps, this seems to work.

Hisame brushes herself off as she stands up, calling over to the good doctor, "You know they're monsters and not the bunnies right? Like-" she pauses, "Yeah like that. Got an arm off and all that." Gesturing to Mizuko as the story comes up.

She's opted for the easy route, now that they've lured the critters out though. Settling down near one of the cages and gathering up a few more of the herbs and some other bits of food, making it easier for others with the experience to do so, to capture them. "Probably hungier than most tigers really" she eventually calls out, having stepped away from her lure.

"Oh no, you don't get my meaning," Prophylaxis says with a (malevolent!?) sparkle in the pits of his eyes. "Both adorable and abominable, fluffy and ferocious, the bunbun is truly a magnificent creature. They are friendly, yes...! So friendly that they wish nothing less than to consume all that stands in their path, to grant upon those they devour the honor of being... a bunbun...!"

Maybe this man should not be trusted with caring for so many buns? This might be a bad plan. Or maybe... it's the best plan??

"Anyway, they're only really dangerous if they swarm in large numbers. As long as we keep them separate and treat them with love and respect, the bunbun is a relatively harmless creature. But enough talk!" Prophylaxis sweeps his arm forwar as the bunbun horde advances. Suddenly, several-dozen previously laid trap boxes spring up out of the ground, isolating many of the terrifying creatures all in one go! "Behold, IT'S A TRAP!"

    It seems these bunbuns are... harmless? Like the ones at the race. Perhaps those summoned by the plants are different than those that spawn naturally in the wild? Mizuki nods at Prophy's observation that they only turn evil when swarming. "You should've seen the Beast of Caerbannog, though..." Although she wonders how much of his bunthusiasm is real and how much is doing a bit. She stares as the traps spring up around the bunbuns. "Have you done this before...?"

    Luring with herbs, driving them with scary sword swings, even the song also all seem to work. "They're acting so differently here..."

    And then it's time for an easter egg hunt! Apparently the area is considered so safe even small child landers are participating. Mizuki prowls the fields... but will her were fang senses attuned to hunting prey help that much with spotting eggs?

Hisame gives Prophylaxis the side eye as he wanders into the rant about bun buns. There might be some slight shuffling away too even. "I'm... not entirely sure what you're up to there, but I think it might start with serial."

The eggs left behind by the bunnies confuse the imp woman even further. There's just quiet contemplation. "Why are eggs and bunnies a thing?" before sighing, lifting her hand up and creating a globe of light to make the search easier, leaving it hanging above and to the side of her head.

"Which one was the Beast of Caerbannog? I think... I was not around for that." She shakes her head, shrugging it off and continuing the search, helping the landers out mostly.

Goldenblade smirks at Proph and says, "You didn't fight the one we fought the other day. They said he was a miniboss, whatever that is, and he would have killed all of us if we hadn't been on our toes." She nods at what Mizuki says. "That rabbit was /dynamite/."

She searches for the bunbun eggs, smirking as she says, "Oh, this brings me back. I haven't done this in -years-." She'll put her eggs in one basket, much as conventional wisdom recommends against it, and collects a few as she goes, seems she's got a good eye for where they might be hidden.

There's a dotted outline of a person where Prophylaxis had been standing.

"Oh look at you little fluffy bunnies, you're all so cuuuuute~" The good doctor squats over one of his trap boxes, cooing and mercilessly petting the bunbuns within. He's... not going to be of any help right now at all. "Neheheheheh~ Bunnies really are the best...!"

    "Technically," Mizuki observes, "The bunbuns are beasts, and the Beast of Caerbannog is a monster. They're different things." She looks at Hisame. "It's Easter in the real world. This is the Easter event. It's Spring, season of new life, new growth... eggs and bunnies are symbols of fertility. The Beast of Caerbannog isn't part of the event, we just decided to go hunt it down."

    Noone seems to have any trouble collecting a decent share of eggs. Except Prophy. But he already has everything he wanted out of this event, doesn't he?

    While the kids laugh and play and show off their eggs, the adult Landers begin preparing the feast, some asking the adventurers if they have any skills to contribute.

    For her part Mizuki tries to supplement some cooking fires that aren't burning as hot as the chefs would like using her fire breath. Trying not to let out too much at once and just burn it...

Goldenblade :hrms at what Mizuki says about the Beast and about the bunbuns, and ohs about it not being related. "I thought it was," she explains. She'll help with the cooking, but things here are different than real life. She's used to looking at the gradual doneness on the things on the fire, and the whole concept of raw-raw-raw-raw-done-burnt confuses her, because she's used to raw-slightly done-kind of done-mostly done-done-burnt, and so she'll look away, and when she looks back, burnt. Every time.

Hisame is not the one you want brewing drinks. She brews tea. And occasionally microwave ramen. "I figured it wasn't part of the event" She says, while trying to peruse her collection of fun chemicals... none of which she really thinks would work well with the drink. Which means that she misses the necessary ingredients when they should be put in. Whether it's from distraction or inexperience, it doesn't really matter. "Isn't Easter at another time?" She seems confused, pausing, "I mean I know about Easter, but I skipped it when I was doing the world building. Egg hunts are weird."

She tries to ignore the fact that the pot is bubbling over and slowly eases away from it. Sure she wasn't the only one there, but she is ostensibly someone that could have helped before it got there. Oops.

Do not bother Prophylaxis with the business of cooking! No seriously, he's badly distracted and present with the fluffy little bunbun he's rubbing against his cheek. (It looks vaguely uncomfortable, Prophylaxis doesn't seem to notice). He's so badly distracted that he sets off a fireball that's maybe just a /little/ too big...

    Re: The Beast and the Bunbuns: "Nah. The Beast of Caerbannog is a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference." Mizuki explains. "It was a little bunny that did, well, that in the movie, so naturally the ETO version looks like a bun-bun. Funny, come to think of it you'd expect it to have appeared on the American or European servers rather than here..."

    Re: Easter and time: "Usually it's at the beginning of April... *sigh* geeze, to think we've been trapped in here over three months... but yeah, this is the right time of year for it."

    Mizuki manages to control her flames well enough, the it's a near thing, with a few dishes just slightly charred.

    The others... well. A few landers end up poking at miscooked food, not really eating it...

    ...And then the feast is interrupted anyway! It might be easy to miss a random lander child pointing at something in the woods... but apparently not for the other landers, who freeze, turn as one, and shout "Oh no! It's the Were-Rabbit! Run!" they gather the children and flee, abandoning everything else as the 'were-rabbit' stomps out of the woods. (To anyone who checks, it inspects as a monster. Large enough to tower menacingly over cars, it's a bit big for a PC, anyway...)

    Mizuki has moved to stand between the banquet and the beast while the Landers run. "Okay... we've fought some terrible rabbits, but bosses are designed to be BEATEN by us, right? And this isn't like that field boss, this is part of the Easter event! They wouldn't design an Easter event to TPK people, right? Come on, we got this!"

    For her part, she mostly runs around it trying to harry it with speed and stab and claw it in the back whenever it's focused on the others!

Goldenblade peers as the Landers cry out, and it's chaos as they break for cover, and the huge bunbun stomps out, covering the burnt food she's responsible for. Hopefully it will never be seen. Then again, Landers presumably live on menu food, so who can say? Her swords come free, and she moves to interpose herself between the monstrous bunbun and the festival ground. "This is more what I was expecting," she admits. Standing fast with her sword out, she strikes hard when it approaches and she slashes wildly, moving around behind it as the party piles on, whittling down the health bar bit by bit.

Prophylaxis SAID not to INTERRUPT HIM while he's with a BUNNY. That goes not only for party members, quests and NPCs, but monsters as well. The cry of 'were-bunny!!' snaps him out of his bunbun-induced stupor long enough to stare hatefully at the misshapen creature that hauls itself out of the woods. It looks like bunny, it looks too much like a bunny, but... "Something is missing..." Prophylaxis taps his chin thoughtfully, then another spark of malice ignites deep within his soul and the Doctor decides that he knows /exactly/ what's missing. "You," he says to the were-bun, "Are not fluffy enough."

With a snap of his fingers, the air begins to swirl at Prophylaxis' bidding. Clouds gather, whirling down from the sky. The dark fluff draws down, forming a droplet of grey-white sky-stuff that drooooops... and falls...

...And lands, surrounding the Were-Bunny in a cloud of crackling thunder and arcing lightning and fluffy, fluffy storm-clouds. "There," Prophylaxis nods in approval as the monster is summarily electrocuted, "Much better."

Hisame isn't having any of this rampaging were-bunnicula-whatever-thing rampaging around a bunch of kids. Even if they're landers and philosophically she has no idea one way or the other if they're real, or if she's even real. Fatalism comes later. She catches onto the problem pretty quickly luckily, what with trying to slink away from her mistake with the drinks. There might even be whistling involved!

She manifests her scythe, crude implement of tanking that it is and runs forward, spade tail flailing behind her as she's clearly excited at the excuse to plausibly deny things. With a leap, hands over head, she brings the blade down hard on the creature, using the hooked blade to yank it and spin it away from the others. "Eyes forward!" She growls uut, trying to keep it focused pureely on herself for now. The lightning storm gets her to hurriedly yank the blade free mind you, she doesn't need to experience lightning, simulator or otherwise.

    Hisame attracts its attention! If the bunny is a symbol of spring and the scythe is a symbol of fall, does that count as an elemental weakness? Either way, Goldenblade and Mizuki capitalize on this distraction, tearing lines of glowing red polygons into its flanks! And then the INSUFFICIANTLY FLUFFY BOSS BUNNY has drawn Prophy's ire and is made significantly more fluffy AND significantly more electrocuted!

    All in all, this boss does seem significantly easier than certain other bunny-related encounters some here have participated in -- noone's health gets anywhere near the red and it's over relatively quickly.

    The Landers return, hailing the adventurers as heroes and setting up the banquet with whatever food remains. When everyone sits down to eat, the adventurers are handed some bun-bun-themed keepsakes.

    "This is more like it! ...I think." Mizuki muses. "You know, I never really went to any parties this big in real life... the biggest 'feast' was Thanksgiving with the family..."

Hisame looks honestly confused and asks, "Thanks giving? What kind of weird party is that?" She taps her foot against the ground, having finished doing... the dirty work that comes with tanking. She may or may not be unceremoniously pouring various vials over scratches and bites while doing so. It seems to work for her at least.

Goldenblade ehs, Hisami doesn't know what Thanksgiving is? "You get together with all your extebded family and eat til you're sick," she explains. Well, not everyone knows American holidays. Though she's met what seems like a large number of American expatriates like herself.

    Mizuki just stares at Hisame for a moment. "Right... been in here so long it's easy to forget, not like everyone's avatars look Japanese. It's an American and Canadian thing. There's a mythology behind it but basically it's a modern harvesttime feast deal." She nods at Goldenblade's summary.

Hisame slowly tilts her head to one side, then the other. "So it's not a thing in Europe right? I'm going to get yelled at by some nerd on a board if I forget to show it right if it is."

Trailing off, she holds up her hands, "Thanks though! Uh... does that mean you two traveled a lot? Or were you visiting?"

    Mizuki shakes her head. "I mean, I imagine there are similar holidays with a different mythology? Spring festival, summer festival, fall festival, winter festival, people of all societies like to have their celebrations. I wouldn't really describe once or twice a year as 'a lot'... Oh. I'd just gotten a job transfer to Japan right before all this started. My first time out of America, actually."

Goldenblade shakes her head, "Ah, not travelled so much. I moved to Japan back in the 1950's, and have lived there since," she explains. "But yeah, most places have harvest festivals. Germany has Octoberfest, in Europe."

Hisame shakes her head and says, "I meant the uh, Thanksgiving thing. I know about the other festivals. I tried to avoid Octoberfest though, it seemed too distinct to...- It's neat, but I didn't want people immediately breaking themselves out of the story, you know?" She then looks really confuseed at fist before remembering the fact that their current condition had everyone speaking, to her knowledge, Japanese. "I would not have guessed. Or guessed that you were so ol-experienced!"

Goldenblade shrugs, shakes her head. "I thought I was speaking Japanese. I've been doing that in real life for years. I would have to concentrate to speak English, I think."