in the air - joining

[arcy]

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Izuku is lost.
Again.
It isn't as pressing of a situation as it is the first time. The Typhoon was just a place for him to stay, in any case. He'd just sort of thought ... maybe if he stayed in one spot, it might be easier for All Might to find him and bring him home. If .. if they were looking at all.
If nothing else, though, he wasn't that big of a deal. It was a temporary arrangement.
It's been a while though, and he'd thought .. well. It wouldn't hurt to go out and explore again. ... And, admittedly, maybe deciding to walk all the way out of the Typhoon was a bad plan when he was still hurt. He hadn't been thinking right. Sure, it'd been a while since he'd got them, but they weren't exactly .. healing very well.
He tries not to think about it.
His mouth is dry, journal clutched between his teeth. He'd -- he didn't want to ruin it anymore than he already had. Izuku, after all, was terribly small, and the bag he'd originally kept it in was already covered in mud, just like the rest of him.
It's hard to smell anything, over the stink of the swamp. Or maybe it's because of how fuzzy his brain has been lately. His notes have been getting ... increasingly messy and at least mildly incoherent, which was really the only reason Izuku had noticed anything was wrong at all. Which probably said a lot about him.
Another step. The ground disappears from underneath his paws.
Izuku, despite his best efforts, can't help back a yelp. He almost drops his journal. Almost, but clamps his teeth down in time. It probably wouldn't have fallen through, the gaps weren't wide, but he doesn't want to risk it.
... ..... .. This meant people lived here, didn't it? Did Izuku do it again? Was he just that bad at being sensitive to his surroundings, that he not only got stuck in a trap but didn't realize people lived here?
... Honestly, as much as he would like to hope they're as forgiving as the Typhoon had been, considering his current predicament, his hopes aren't that high. Miserably, and almost tearfully, the kitten shuts his eyes, and waits.
//tl;dr small muddy boy is Trapped™

[CAUSTIC.]

Caustic rather detested children. Typically, his heart was too cold and they weren’t worth his time. Few were of note, though- Natalie has been a wonderful apprentice and the closest thing Caustic had a to daughter, and perhaps those were ties that could have been made official, but Luc died before he and Alexander could tie the knot. They weren’t even engaged yet.
Besides, Natalie was an adult by then.
Caustic couldn’t help the communal responsibility he felt towards the children in these groups- at the very least, he should keep them from killing themselves. He reminded himself, however, that any relationships made here were for naught. He planned on leaving soon, if the portal device would finally function.

He needed to step away from it again. Typically, losing projects or failing upon them upset him, made it worth visiting Octavio and letting himself inside the speedster’s quarters. Octavio wasn’t here, and Caustic didn’t have anything fresh to dig his paws into for... entertainment. He should pay the library another visit, though.

So he was out in the territory now, and his eyes laid upon the little kitten. No doubt, it was a talker and Caustic would have to greet it and lead it back to camp. A waste of his time. The wolf stepped out from the underbrush, letting the gas leak from his mouth and framing the edges of his face. He lumbered forward, standing over the kitten and letting a sick, mad laugh roll from his throat. Traps, how joyous! It seemed one of Tanglewood’s traps had some use after all. Caustic’s eyes glowed through the wisps of gas that obscured his face, tail wagging as he looked down at the child. A few things were clear- Caustic was massive in comparison. Caustic was a predator, and he pulled joy from seeing someone stuck. The laughter reduced to a chuckle, and then a grimace.
”Do you desire help, child?”

TAGS • PLAYLIST • PENNED BY OWLIE

THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY OUT

© LEXASPERATED

[wormwood.]

☆ HUNG PICTURES OF PATRON SAINTS UP ON MY WALL TO REMIND ME THAT I AM A FOOL. TELL ME WHERE I CAME FROM, WHAT I WILL ALWAYS BE: JUST A SPOILED LITTLE KID WHO WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL —

Izuku was not the first joiner to get caught in one of the traps. In fact, Aurum was willing to bet a few pieces of prey that more people arrived to the group in the traps, rather than outside of them. Perhaps it would happen less now, now that Beck was beginning to pull some of them out since there was no longer an Audrey around to feed, but Aurum had his doubts. After all, only time would tell if Beck could actually remember there all the traps were, even when Aurum and some others had gone through the trouble of attempting to redo the tree markings. Those markings had saved the proxy's ass more than once from being flung up into a net or trapped down a hole, but they unfortunately weren't all that helpful to non-tanglers who didn't know their meaning, such as the poor little feline currently stuck. Aurum heard nothing but the high pitched yelp from Izuku before he was sighing and moving over, arriving just a bit after Caustic had already come onto the scene. The angel could only hope that his crooked, sheepish smile would serve to be a comfort to Izuku, especially considering whom had come to greet him first. Aurum personally didn't have much of an issue with Caustic, but the doctor was far from a welcoming face, and this kid already seemed pretty shaken up from falling into one of the traps.

Carefully tiptoeing around the edge of the area Izuku had been trapped in, the tigon tilted his head a bit as he inspected the trap, a sigh leaving his muzzle. He mumbled as he prodded a little at Izuku, ready to work with Caustic and get the trap untangled from the kid, "Sorry about this... we've got the traps set up for protection, you know? At least you can take solace in the fact that you are far from the first person to have ended up like this." Aurum then found himself taking in a breath, surprised by the faint scent of the Typhoon that he could identify beneath the mud that currently coated Izuku's pelt. Another Typhooner? Why the hell were they all coming here? A frown tugging slightly at his lips, Aurum rumbled curiously, "Wait... are you some kind of messenger from the Typhoon? If you are, they really should've warned you about the traps..." If messengers weren't getting warned, then Aurim would have to go and talk to Goldie about it, just for the safety of her poor members.

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #722227; font-size: 24px;"][color=#c16f78]— AURUM

#psychosocial.

[arcy]

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Izuku doesn't quite scowl at the sight of the laughing wolf, shaky and a little near tears, but it's a near thing. He gets stuck and somebody laughs at him. Great. Like that was a new experience.
It doesn't really hurt. Izuku is a little afraid, and a little affronted.  Tries to keep himself from freaking out -- an offer for help. Genuine, or no? It seems so, but Izuku is ... listen, Izuku is still figuring out how to read people, he has no idea.
He's saved from having to worry about it by another arrival. A, uh ... a tigon, maybe? Izuku's seen a few pictures of those, but never in person, but he things so. A tigon, grinning sheepishly. Talking.
Not malicious, then. What do they need to protect themselves from, if they leave up traps for anyone to walk into? The kitten wriggles, awkwardly shuffling to place his notebook somewhere where he can actually talk, and where it won't get muddy. ... It's a bit difficult.
"Th -- Thanks. Could I please get ..." His voice shakes, gaze flicks towards Caustic, a reminder of his offer for help. Watches as Aurum approaches the trap. His ear twitches. Typhoon? They know each other. Interesting. "I, um. I'm not really .... I was staying with them, but I'm not really ..." Izuku left on his own. People weren't noticing his absence, and Izuku hadn't told anyone. He may have stayed with them, but he hadn't really ... been one of them.
Is this another group, then? ... Interesting. The Typhoon, pirates, and .. whoever this is, they have traps, and they're presumably .. well. Maybe on friendly terms, or maybe he just cares about individual people. Izuku doesn't know, and he's a little too hysterical to care.
//this kinda sucks + IGNORE HOW LATE THIS IS HSDFKJDSF

[toboggan]

When Beck armed those traps all the way back in 2018, he likely didn't know how relevant they'd still be years later. Time and time again, unwary strangers and potential joiners alike found themselves ensnared by the devious devices, which were ironically meant for fending off those who posed a threat to Tanglewood's wellbeing. As dumb luck would have it, the ratio of friendly individuals getting captured to enemies getting captured was greatly unbalanced; like, Leroy wasn't good at math or anything, but that shit must've been around a hundred-to-one or something. Yet, despite their inefficiency, the traps would not meet their undoing any time soon, especially with the new political climate that the general had delved his group into.

Caustic and Aurum were already on the scene, which was no surprise to the wolfhound. What was a surprise, though, was the outsider's rather peculiar pelt colour. The search he conducted through his mind to recall the name of the cat breed that had green fur garnered nil results, so this fellow must've really been exotic. That, or he was just a giant hairy booger with legs.

"Yain't really one of 'em, though," he says briskly, finishing the hysterical stranger's sentence for him. "Yain't 'pirate material', which is why ya left. Now, seein' that we and the pirates see eye-to-eye on basically every topic there is, I'm sorta intrigued by your existence here." The weirdo's voice echoed hymns of youth, Leroy had noticed. The young were, more often than not, terribly naive; and this boy wasn't any exception. Being naive in this particular environment came as a hazard (as evident by the predicament the booger had found himself in), so the canine was hesitant on letting the individual go immediately. "Before we letcha free, I got some questions to ask ya - just to be formal, ya know?"

"Firstly, d'ya know where ya are, boy?"