Event Private Finished Caught in a Sticky Situation

[This is all before the Bonfire Horror event and takes place in October]

Everything was going fine today. Henghai was tending to his backyard garden after finishing all his work as a teacher. The plants were in perfect shape, something he was immensely proud of. It was not an unusual trait for Earth oricenta to be naturally good at taking care of the Earth, but he appreciated the beautiful outcome of his efforts nonetheless. With dirt covering his hands, Henghai stood up to look at his art, then untied the bun his hair was in, not caring that the dirt was sticking to his hair.

A book would have been nice after this. Turning to go back to his house, Henghai felt a strange pull. At first, it was light, something he could ignore, like wind, but then he started stumbling back until the next thing he knew, he was waking up surrounded by plants and trees, but not those near his house. This was where he was now, in the forest, and it felt like there was a gap in his memory between all that happened. He was almost foolish enough to think he had another Awakening, but his days of gaining new powers from the elements were long gone. Plus, from his memory, the pulling felt more like wind, which was not a part of his territory.

He tried to lift himself up but quickly realized his head was stuck, pulled down forcibly when he tried to move it. His arms and legs were stuck as well, no matter how hard he pulled. In fact, his entire body was stuck. "Wh-What?" Henghai tried to keep himself quiet, unsure of how safe the situation he was. How could he feel safe when he was becoming aware that he was stuck in a massive spiderweb? Despite the danger he thought he was in, his face only showed serenity and mild confusion. He was good at keeping himself calm. As a healer, it was expected of you. If you were trying to help someone, looking panicked only made the situation worse, for both yourself and the victim. Best to look like everything was fine with only hints of your true feelings, so you did not appear apathetic and uncaring.

No longer moving his body, Henghai fell silent, listening for any sign of someone nearby. The owner of this web at to be here somewhere. Even one of the Afolabi-Soies, who lived in the forests. If the person were a danger, surely if he screamed for help one of his friends would come. But Henghai tried to trust the citizens of Manta Carlos to not kill him for being randomly teleported into their property. Considering some of the spider people he has seen, it was hard to stay optimistic.

@Nameless

The silence allowed Henghai to think. At first, it was nothing much in particular: groceries list, books he planned on reading, and the scientific terms of plants Anrong would lecture him about were all things he used to pass the time. Anything that helped him relax enough to get to the actual planning. Panicking would only set him back in his pursuit to escape. He would rather waste time thinking about trivial situations than allowing himself to get more stuck in the web by losing control of his emotions.

His time alone did not last long enough for him to settle on a specific plan to escape, however. A spider with a cybernetic physiology jumped down, approaching Henghai. One that looked like those spider girls he saw around, with them having the upper body reminiscent of a female human and the lower body of a spider. The most obvious difference between this spider and those were that Pandora, Dalia, and the other ones he did not catch the names of, were organic.

At first, Henghai thought this would be the part where fighting for his life or getting eaten alive were his only options, but instead, the cybernetic spider girl inspected him like some curious child. Her behavior would have been cute and charming, if not for the fact that he was still trapped and vulnerable. She even tugged at his turtleneck, as if she wondered if it was attached to him like skin.

She did not seem to want to hurt him. Not yet, at least. This could be a promising opportunity for him to explain what happened and negotiate his release. He had his own questions as well, like why he teleported from his home to this place. They could both pursue an answer together. With a smile, Henghai gave a friendly, but purposely nervous laugh. Best to not act too confident. "Hey there. I didn't mean to intrude. One moment I was in my house, the next I was here. Do you know why I got here? I'm going to guess teleportation, but that's not a power I have."

Okay, talking did not work. Henghai should have expected that, but what he did not expect was how she would react. She gave him another curious look, once again looking like a child. Was she not able to understand him? He could go through the list of languages he knew, but she was a robot. Or would cyborg be a better term? She seemed to be completely mechanical but sentient, so Henghai settled on android. She was an android; if she could not understand him speaking English, one of the more common languages on the island, what could she understand? He assumed mechanical creatures would have many languages stored. She did not even respond back to the question, so Henghai was unable to make a proper guess to what language she understood.

That was the least of his worries. Once the android finished prodding his body, she sprayed his torso with even more of her webs before continuing her study on his limbs. So far, she did not seem to have any intentions of harming or eating him. He accepted the small victories in this situation. Even better, she released one of his arms, only to experiment more with it. This one was the moments he enjoyed being a part of a rare species. If he was a regular human or some other more common animal, he felt confident that he would not be allowed to live this long.

Knowing that this girl was willing to cover him in even more of her webbing, Henghai took now as the time to start his escape. His plan was impulsive and sloppy, but it was still a plan, and the best he could come up with for now. Nearby, a small tree sprouted arms and legs before pulling itself out from the ground. The android had a childlike demeanor to her, which may allow her to be distracted by the walking tree and try to study it instead. If all worked out, this could leave room for Henghai to work on getting out of the webbing. If not, at least she would have two creatures to play with than just one, and Henghai could still create more minions to keep her busy.

The planned worked . . . in a way. The tree just stood there, ready to be inspected by the spider android. It did not flinch when web covered blocked it from getting closer. To show that it was friendly, it waved a hand at the girl, then made what could be considered a smile ingrained in its face. Afterward, it took a step forward, standing on the tip of its toes to see the spider better.

While the girl was distracted, many small bushes sprouted out of the ground out of the android's sight before scrambling towards their master. He was careful to keep them quiet, and when they made a sound, he made sure the tree made distracting noises just in case. That part was simple, as the tree creaked with every movement it made. After some time, the tree plopped down on the ground and started picking at the grass as it waited for the girl to do something. In the meantime, Henghai commanded his plants to try to get him out of the webbing. With their dark bark and thorny leaves, he had them wrap their arms around the webs and start sawing away. The web was tough, and the movement made noise, but Henghai hoped that if they moved fast enough, he would be able to free himself from this prison.

More and more plants surrounded Henghai, with small groups of them differing in structure. Some had sturdy branches, while others had sharp and prickly leaves. Henghai managed to grab a few who had acid, though he had to be careful to not hurt himself with them. Each group worked on a different section of webbing that Henghai was covered in. He tried to be cautious about not making too many that they would be spotted, but at the rate he was going at earlier, he would be caught anyway.

All was going well for the most part. The plants were still struggling to get through the webbing, but the spider girl was focused on Henghai's tree minion. One of them must have made too many sounds, however, as they were soon spotted. Henghai's body stiffened, his eyes locked on the approaching spider.

The plants fought back against her attacks. The ones that did not become immobile by her webs that is. The rest got back up to punch and kick her weakly, hoping to distract her from the tree reaching out to pick the girl up and move her. If they were incapable of understanding one another, Henghai had to assume his wellbeing was in danger and try to de-escalate this situation. Harming the spider was not his intention, but he did want her out of the way so one of the smaller creatures could try to scout for help and the rest could continue working on releasing him from the webbing. There was also how the girl did not seem to want to hurt him. Not now, anyway. She was protecting him like a prize. With the lack of communication available, it was no wonder that she would think he was being attacked by a hoard of sentient plants also invading her home.