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aplaceinthedark · 7 days

Text

prologue: JOURNEY to the OAKEN GROVE

Summary: The Appalachian Mountains hide numerous monsters, and it's up to Taylor and the Bad Omens to prevent them from causing any harm.

Word Count: 1,011

CW: supernatural themes, character death, off-screen carnage, mind control, male dominating a woman's will

This is RPF, and thus will contain real people, but names and events will be changed. If this bothers you too much, then please leave this temple without causing harm.

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@ladyveronikawrites @lilhobgobbler @deathblacksmoke @cookiesupplier @thatchickwiththecamera

Long ago, in ages past, all living things commanded infinite power and roamed unchecked across the land. They were as spirits and could speak and perform strong magic. Though in time, an evil had spread across the land, and it was decided that the world’s magic needed to be protected.

That’s what a lot of children in this part of the Shenandoah Valley was told, as part of some tales told by their Grannies. But not miss Elin Young. When she was a child, she was taught that those were selfish practices.

“Darkness only sought to make all creatures equal,” her granny told her, “and to share their power totally amongst all things…” But still, some creatures wanted to keep their strengths secret, and concealed their divinity, leaving the world lifeless and dull. Only the wise Watcher of the Woods remembered how the world had been, and could guide others to true Enlightenment.

Elin Young had done a lot of things most people would have been ashamed of in her past, but it had all been in the name of that such True Enlightenment, she told herself. She had sacrificed much in the journey, but she had remained strong. There was no way anything would stand in her way.

At least that’s what she tried to tell herself as she bled out into the cold, dark earth.

As that same ancient dirt beneath her leeched the warmth from her bones, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was worth it in the end, if this was the end she was receiving. Lying on a bed of pine needles, her body torn asunder, was not what she envisioned. It was not what the Watcher of the Woods had promised her.

It had been exactly a year and a day since the disastrous summer solstice, when a new Vessel was supposed to be Hollowed and Imbued with the Black Stag’s might. Instead, the Towering Man had stolen that might and kept it for himself, selfishly hoarding it from her Family. Through that year and a day, Elin remained strong, her belief telling her that the Revered Father would return to reclaim his stolen crown.

But earlier this dark night, the Family had tried to summon the Black Stag and instead was met with the form of a beast: a pale, silver-furred Grim whose eyes danced with glee when he saw the meal that had assembled before him. The congregation tried to scatter and she knew that they were being picked off, judging by their screams.

Elin had escaped the Grim only to have a brush with the second of the horrors of the Shenandoah Valley. Luckily, the Drowned had been preoccupied with his own victims, lured to him by his siren song, and then torn apart by his teeth and claws. Elin had pressed on, certain that she would soon find her way out of the woods.

Finally, she had felt certain that she was near the edge of the woods, when she had run into a familiar face. “Nick! Oh my god, thank goodness I found–”

Elin had barely gotten those words out when she felt herself freeze, and before she turned around, she swore she could see Nick’s eyes glow green in his stony face. Against her will, she started moving back into the woods. In horror, she realized that Nicholas was as he trailed behind her, directing her further and further in, until they had reached the place where the old and twisted oak tree grew.

There she was forced to kneel down. She, however, was not forced to plead for mercy, but she did anyway. Her only warning of what was to come was the creaking of trees and the rustling of leaves as the tree… moved.

And one of the people she sacrificed in the name of True Enlightenment came face to face with her.

AFTER ALL YOU’VE DONE TO ME?

said the new Watcher of the Woods.

DID YOU ACTUALLY THINK THE PAIN YOU CAUSED ME WOULD SEND ME TO AN EARLY GRAVE? DID YOU ACTUALLY THINK I COULDN’T BREAK THOSE CHAINS AFTER ALL THE HELL YOU MADE ME OVERCOME?

And then the new Watcher shifted his face into something vaguely familiar, and the young woman wept from fear at last. In front of Elin stood the man she betrayed to the Revered Father, who two years ago she had coerced into the woods.

Elin bowed her head and cried, “Please forgive me! I never wanted to do those things! They made me do them! I still love you!” She was willing to say anything, even lie through her teeth, if it meant she could walk out of this alive.

And the Watcher knew this, because he laughed before saying,

YOU WERE THE REASON I WAS CONSUMED BY THE DARK; THE REASON I WAS CONSUMED BY THE BLACK. I ALMOST LOST MYSELF IN ALL THE LIES YOU TOLD, BUT I’M BACK NOW, AND STRONGER THAN YOU’D THINK.

Noah Davis was a sweet boy when she first met him. His mother had just died, but he still had a spark in him. A spark that the Revered Father coveted, and would eventually claim. And maybe that’s why he was unrecognizable as he flung her around.

And now, as he leaned over her, she knew the humanity had really left him.

THERE’S A LOT OF HOLLOW SOULS OUT HERE IN THESE WOODS; A LOT WHO WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU BURN. AND IF YOU DO SEE YOUR SO-CALLED “FATHER,” TELL HIM I’VE GOT A MESSAGE FOR HIM.

And he left her to die, there, alone.

Despite her faith, despite all that she sacrificed, she died unfulfilled. The only thing she held onto in her black heart was the hatred for the man who left her to die, who cheated her out of what she had been promised. She was glad that the Black Stag had taken his heart, for he could never know love again.

And if he did… well, nothing in these woods ever truly stayed dead.

tysm for reading! Next part coming soon!

#bad omens fanfiction #bad omens rpf #bad omens au #noah sebastian fanfiction #nicholas ruffilo fanfiction #Jolly Karlsson fanfiction #nick folio fanfiction #series: lost in the labyrinth #fic: looking for the meaning #author: aplaceinthedark

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vandaliatraveler · 2 years

Photo

More late summer treasure from a short hike around Messinger Lake (a.k.a., trout pond) at Coopers Rock State Forest.

From top: the nearly ripe berries of frost grape (Vitis vulpina)*, whose fruit reaches full maturity just before the first frost of October; sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), whose dried leaves were once used as an ingredient in snuff; Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora), also known as ghost plant and corpse plant, a parasitic plant that derives nutrients from trees via a mycorrhizal relationship with fungi; Appalachian ladies’ tresses (Spiranthes arcisepala), a late summer orchid found growing at the moist edges of wetlands; white wood aster (Eurybia divaricata), a late-summer perennial of Appalachia’s rich woods and clearings; a pair of eastern destroying angels (Amanita bisporigera) hiding in the ferns, an idyllic spot for these deadly beauties; a young sulphur shelf fungus (Laetiporus sulphureus), also known as chicken-of-the-woods, at prime edibility; and Appalachian oak-leech (Aureolaria laevigata), also known as entireleaf yellow false foxglove and smooth false foxglove, a partially-parasitic plant that attaches to and derives nutrients from oak tree roots while also creating energy from photosynthesis.

* Corrected the scientific name from an earlier post.

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cedar-glade · 3 years

Photo

Photos from a trip with @bloodfleurs out to Adams county, we visited two locations and this one is from the Chaparral prairie complex, a mixed barren/oak sav/ cedar glade/ dolomitic xeric prairie remnant.

From Adams, Scioto, and Brown county (ILP Bluegrass inclusion of Ohio excluding Hamilton co.) Oaks savanna are somewhat intact, some are known for being more fire resistance and in many cases growing slow due to the soil matrix, the upper ridges are less xeric than the rest of the savanna in this photo series; where the ground is leeched, containing mixes of iron rich ohio shale(sandy shale) and weathered dolomitic mineral soils we see prairie openings due to legitimate barren like/bald like shallow soils.

The top photo shows that of a classic Quercus imbricaria, shingle oak, known for fire resistance, though less so than what is shown in the second set. This species is affiliated more with north eastern burn ridges than central plains. Second set, Quercus stellata, post oak, a slow growing species known for a southern range with most genetic diversity in the lower great plains. The final set shows the dark bark of two black jacks, Quercus marilandica, associated with both coastal plains in southern central plains, slow growing, and very fire resistant. In the back ground is a forest dominated by two faster growing species, white oak, Quercus alba, and the chinquapin oak, Quercus muehlenbergii; both are affiliated with dry oak forest(mostly hillside and upland with calceric soils and heavily so in the ILP, Appalachian Mtns., and the Ohio River Valley matrix. Quercus macrocarpa, is also found on site, however, most of the large ones were logged long ago so there is no decent examples anymore. Quercus montana, chestnut oak, is an ericaceous and acid lover, I have not found one on this site though and while present in the county, they are probably limited to acidic upland forests.

#quercus #oaks #oak trees #fire ecology #botany plantblr #botany #ecology #prairie ecology #savanna #prairie #meadowcore #cottagecore #ohio

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