OOC:
[Entering thread with NPC Himawari Henkeitori]
IC:
Tonight was a particularly dark night - there was no moon out, and the stars were covered by the thick layers of clouds that had pulled themselves overhead over the last few hours. It was against this truly black inkiness of the sky that the illumination by the fireflies were all that brighter. Fireflies. It was pitch dark for the longest time, as Henkeitori had fumbled through the forest. While his connection with nature had allowed him to gain some semblance of understanding of what was surrounding him, it was not enough for him to fully know how to navigate the maze he had found himself in. That, was until they started floating up. One by one, small glimmers of light began to appear around him, and then floated up above the forest. As they did so, the glimmers of light became brighter, until they illuminated the forest itself. Over time, more and more were floating up. It was as if they all wanted to do so, but lacked the courage until their peers began showing them up. Then, they followed suit en masse, until thousands of fireflies had risen above the canopy of the forest.
Henkeitori was in shock and awe. Just, what was going on? Why were so many fireflies coming out and once, and why were they so numerous? Carefully so to not disturb the fireflies, Henkeitori made his way up a tree, until he too was standing above the canopy, standing amongst the fireflies. He watched as the fireflies floated around, before coming together to form shapes in the sky. They began simply, coming together as triangles and circles and hexagons, before parting again. Slowly, the complexity built up, as they began forming shapes that almost seemed to spell out what seemed like what could be some sort of hieroglyphic language.
Henkeitori had a look around, observing the patterns forming. He noticed that many of them were repeating themselves. Initially there were about 50 or so patterns that were being formed, but as the repetitions continued to happen, Henkeitori noticed that the actual number of patterns being formed were decreasing. Down to 40, then 25 or so, then 15, and ten. Ten, for the longest time, as the same patterns kept on repeating over and over again across the vast area that the fireflies were inhabiting. Henkeitori watched in fascination as the number of each of the ten forms varied - sometimes one was more common than the rest. Sometimes, they were all approximately similar in numbers. Then, all of a sudden… the forms reduced to just two.
Half of the forms were in the shape of a pentagram. The other half, was in a shape best described to look like the kanji for the word 'north'.
What… is going on?
Henkeitori watched as the fireflies flew closer to each other, so that each pentagram was facing a kanji. Then… the fireflies forming the pentagram began to spray some sort of glowing, orange aerosol in the night sky, in the direction of the fireflies forming the kanji - enough aerosols that it was more like a thick mist. That was when the fireflies forming the kanji dissipated, and seeming to frantically zigzag across the mist sprayed at them, almost as if to catch as much of the aerosol as possible.
That was when it dawned on him… he had seen something similar, but definitely nowhere near as elaborate, performed by some other insects he had caught or observed.
Sperm! The males are spraying sperm at their female counterparts! It made perfect sense. Half of the population was male, while the other half was female… and all they did was just perform a massively complicated mating ritual.
Oh. Uh oh. Standing up here amongst the fireflies, he realized that the mist was wafting over him, covering him with… firefly… er, unnameables.
For a second, Henkeitori was a bit repulsed, but curiosity got the better of him. He continued to watch, realizing that as the males ran out of sperm, they began to lose their illumination and were dropping like… (fire)flies, ruining the elaborate pentagramic shapes that they had formed.
Meanwhile, the females had calmed down and seemed to just be floating around, almost seeming aimlessly. As the last of the pentagrams dissipated, indicating the disappearance, and potentially mass death, of the male fireflies, Henkeitori noticed that it was now the female fireflies' turn to begin losing color, reducing their brilliant illuminance to almost non-existence.
Yet, with the dark sky, Henkeitori was still able to make out the thousands of female fireflies that were still around. They seemed to be practically motionless now, beating their wings just fast enough to maintain their approximate positions.
Curious, Henkeitori continued to watch them. An hour passed, then two. Then three, and then it began. The rain foretold by the presence by the mass of clouds finally came - and down it poured. Henkeitori could tell when the rain hit each and every firefly around him, causing a slight sparkle due to the diffraction of the bioluminescence. As they were hit by the rain, the female fireflies now too fell in droves, hundreds at a time down into the forest below.
Henkeitori climbed down the tree, following the fireflies. He was curious about what was going on. A few branches down from the canopy, he felt it underneath his shoes. Finally taking from his backpack a lamp that he covered with some waterproof cloth, he lit it to truly see with certainty the carnage around him. Many of the fireflies were stuck on trees, a large number being devoured by various insects and small mammals that, upon seeing the light from the lamp, scattered. That was why he did not lit the lamp earlier - he did not want to disturb the denizens of the forest. But curiosity got the better of him, and he had to know.
Examining the fireflies carefully, he noticed something intriguing. Most of those that were eaten were male fireflies, while only a few of the dead females had been attended to. It struck him that this was on purpose - the males had sacrificed themselves to the animals of the forest, letting all those carnivores feast on the males, so that once the females began falling down, they would not be eaten.
But then, what's the point? The female were all dead anyways… if this was a mass mating ritual, then how would everything dying help?
Henkeitori picked up a few of the dead females, and examined them closely, cutting them open with a scalpel to see the insides. He noticed that they all still had eggs inside them, but… the eggs were of two different colors - a bright orange, and a dull grey. Upon touching the egg sacs, Henkeitori realized that the orange ones were soft and almost bursted apart just at his slightest contact, while the dull grey ones were hardened.
Although… he realized that some of the orange eggs were turning grey, and that was due to him touching them with wet hands.
So…
The males sacrifice themselves. The eggs are made of some sort of material that hardens upon contact with water. So the females hang around until they are soaked, which kills them, but turns their eggs into something that is probably not edible. Is that all?
No…
Henkeitori noticed that as the female bodies came into contact with water for longer, the bodies themselves began to harden. Likely… to act as vessels to carry the eggs away.
The geography of this place, Henkeitori was not too familiar with. However, he knows that his original village was near here, and there were rivers all around.
He racked his older self's brain, remembering anything possible about fireflies. Okay, so Himawari Tori used to visit other villages, and always noticed that those near rivers coming from this area had fireflies, that was said to came out of nowhere a few weeks after periods of significant rainfall in the highland regions… this highland region…
So the bodies act as vessels to carry the eggs downstream, and the eggs harden to prevent from being eaten. Some does not harden, instead being consumed here… to produce the next generation of fireflies here in this very forest, so that the cycle can go on…
Henkeitori smiled at his realization, and amazement at how esoteric nature could be.
What a life…
Henkeitori shut off his lamp and placed it in his backpack. He took his backpack off and laid against the tree he was on, sitting upon the branch while rain fell around him. The trip he was taking could be paused. Henkeitori was just going to take time to revel in the marvels of nature, for now.
It was really the right decision to explore this far. Where he was, nature was beautiful too, but in a far more harsh kind of way. When the environment was harsh, nature often had to itself become harsh. Here… it was… strange. After all, the forest was lush, and everything was abundant. For these fireflies to have evolved in such a manner, sacrificing entire generations of themselves to spread their genes everywhere… Henkeitori really wanted to take the time to imagine just how it could have came to be the case.
OOC:
[WC: 1,550]
[Entering thread with NPC Himawari Henkeitori]
IC:
Tonight was a particularly dark night - there was no moon out, and the stars were covered by the thick layers of clouds that had pulled themselves overhead over the last few hours. It was against this truly black inkiness of the sky that the illumination by the fireflies were all that brighter. Fireflies. It was pitch dark for the longest time, as Henkeitori had fumbled through the forest. While his connection with nature had allowed him to gain some semblance of understanding of what was surrounding him, it was not enough for him to fully know how to navigate the maze he had found himself in. That, was until they started floating up. One by one, small glimmers of light began to appear around him, and then floated up above the forest. As they did so, the glimmers of light became brighter, until they illuminated the forest itself. Over time, more and more were floating up. It was as if they all wanted to do so, but lacked the courage until their peers began showing them up. Then, they followed suit en masse, until thousands of fireflies had risen above the canopy of the forest.
Henkeitori was in shock and awe. Just, what was going on? Why were so many fireflies coming out and once, and why were they so numerous? Carefully so to not disturb the fireflies, Henkeitori made his way up a tree, until he too was standing above the canopy, standing amongst the fireflies. He watched as the fireflies floated around, before coming together to form shapes in the sky. They began simply, coming together as triangles and circles and hexagons, before parting again. Slowly, the complexity built up, as they began forming shapes that almost seemed to spell out what seemed like what could be some sort of hieroglyphic language.
Henkeitori had a look around, observing the patterns forming. He noticed that many of them were repeating themselves. Initially there were about 50 or so patterns that were being formed, but as the repetitions continued to happen, Henkeitori noticed that the actual number of patterns being formed were decreasing. Down to 40, then 25 or so, then 15, and ten. Ten, for the longest time, as the same patterns kept on repeating over and over again across the vast area that the fireflies were inhabiting. Henkeitori watched in fascination as the number of each of the ten forms varied - sometimes one was more common than the rest. Sometimes, they were all approximately similar in numbers. Then, all of a sudden… the forms reduced to just two.
Half of the forms were in the shape of a pentagram. The other half, was in a shape best described to look like the kanji for the word 'north'.
What… is going on?
Henkeitori watched as the fireflies flew closer to each other, so that each pentagram was facing a kanji. Then… the fireflies forming the pentagram began to spray some sort of glowing, orange aerosol in the night sky, in the direction of the fireflies forming the kanji - enough aerosols that it was more like a thick mist. That was when the fireflies forming the kanji dissipated, and seeming to frantically zigzag across the mist sprayed at them, almost as if to catch as much of the aerosol as possible.
That was when it dawned on him… he had seen something similar, but definitely nowhere near as elaborate, performed by some other insects he had caught or observed.
Sperm! The males are spraying sperm at their female counterparts! It made perfect sense. Half of the population was male, while the other half was female… and all they did was just perform a massively complicated mating ritual.
Oh. Uh oh. Standing up here amongst the fireflies, he realized that the mist was wafting over him, covering him with… firefly… er, unnameables.
For a second, Henkeitori was a bit repulsed, but curiosity got the better of him. He continued to watch, realizing that as the males ran out of sperm, they began to lose their illumination and were dropping like… (fire)flies, ruining the elaborate pentagramic shapes that they had formed.
Meanwhile, the females had calmed down and seemed to just be floating around, almost seeming aimlessly. As the last of the pentagrams dissipated, indicating the disappearance, and potentially mass death, of the male fireflies, Henkeitori noticed that it was now the female fireflies' turn to begin losing color, reducing their brilliant illuminance to almost non-existence.
Yet, with the dark sky, Henkeitori was still able to make out the thousands of female fireflies that were still around. They seemed to be practically motionless now, beating their wings just fast enough to maintain their approximate positions.
Curious, Henkeitori continued to watch them. An hour passed, then two. Then three, and then it began. The rain foretold by the presence by the mass of clouds finally came - and down it poured. Henkeitori could tell when the rain hit each and every firefly around him, causing a slight sparkle due to the diffraction of the bioluminescence. As they were hit by the rain, the female fireflies now too fell in droves, hundreds at a time down into the forest below.
Henkeitori climbed down the tree, following the fireflies. He was curious about what was going on. A few branches down from the canopy, he felt it underneath his shoes. Finally taking from his backpack a lamp that he covered with some waterproof cloth, he lit it to truly see with certainty the carnage around him. Many of the fireflies were stuck on trees, a large number being devoured by various insects and small mammals that, upon seeing the light from the lamp, scattered. That was why he did not lit the lamp earlier - he did not want to disturb the denizens of the forest. But curiosity got the better of him, and he had to know.
Examining the fireflies carefully, he noticed something intriguing. Most of those that were eaten were male fireflies, while only a few of the dead females had been attended to. It struck him that this was on purpose - the males had sacrificed themselves to the animals of the forest, letting all those carnivores feast on the males, so that once the females began falling down, they would not be eaten.
But then, what's the point? The female were all dead anyways… if this was a mass mating ritual, then how would everything dying help?
Henkeitori picked up a few of the dead females, and examined them closely, cutting them open with a scalpel to see the insides. He noticed that they all still had eggs inside them, but… the eggs were of two different colors - a bright orange, and a dull grey. Upon touching the egg sacs, Henkeitori realized that the orange ones were soft and almost bursted apart just at his slightest contact, while the dull grey ones were hardened.
Although… he realized that some of the orange eggs were turning grey, and that was due to him touching them with wet hands.
So…
The males sacrifice themselves. The eggs are made of some sort of material that hardens upon contact with water. So the females hang around until they are soaked, which kills them, but turns their eggs into something that is probably not edible. Is that all?
No…
Henkeitori noticed that as the female bodies came into contact with water for longer, the bodies themselves began to harden. Likely… to act as vessels to carry the eggs away.
The geography of this place, Henkeitori was not too familiar with. However, he knows that his original village was near here, and there were rivers all around.
He racked his older self's brain, remembering anything possible about fireflies. Okay, so Himawari Tori used to visit other villages, and always noticed that those near rivers coming from this area had fireflies, that was said to came out of nowhere a few weeks after periods of significant rainfall in the highland regions… this highland region…
So the bodies act as vessels to carry the eggs downstream, and the eggs harden to prevent from being eaten. Some does not harden, instead being consumed here… to produce the next generation of fireflies here in this very forest, so that the cycle can go on…
Henkeitori smiled at his realization, and amazement at how esoteric nature could be.
What a life…
Henkeitori shut off his lamp and placed it in his backpack. He took his backpack off and laid against the tree he was on, sitting upon the branch while rain fell around him. The trip he was taking could be paused. Henkeitori was just going to take time to revel in the marvels of nature, for now.
It was really the right decision to explore this far. Where he was, nature was beautiful too, but in a far more harsh kind of way. When the environment was harsh, nature often had to itself become harsh. Here… it was… strange. After all, the forest was lush, and everything was abundant. For these fireflies to have evolved in such a manner, sacrificing entire generations of themselves to spread their genes everywhere… Henkeitori really wanted to take the time to imagine just how it could have came to be the case.
OOC:
[WC: 1,550]
