"My very dear friends."

Above the trees, the sky turned orange, then red, as the sun began its descent below the horizon. Kaede lifted her eyes to it for a moment as the shadows it cast lengthened into eternity, then returned her attention to her friends. "It seems we met only yesterday, but it was over a year now. With your help, I have grown in ways I would not have thought possible. I have done things I never would have imagined. You have given me hope to give to others, and for that I cannot thank you enough."

They had been with her since she had begun her journey, and they were with her now as it... not ended, she did not think, but stopped for a while, until the pathways were cleared.

"Marie. When I arrived here, I was completely clueless. you took me in and sheltered me and carved out the space I needed to find myself. I will never forget your kindness. Please, promise me that you will not forget it either. Shield those who are uncertain, who are lost, who are scared. Take care of them. Nurture them, and help them grow." The little sprout Marie had planted in the Arboretum twisted itself around Kaede where she stood, the beginnings of a circle.

"Custodian. This place, this world... it was not yours, and yet you came to it and did everything you could to make it your home. Even when it was cruel to you, you bore it with what grace you could, and always you were willing to speak out against injustice. You didn't always offer me comfort, but you always offered me truth. Promise me you will take pride in your honesty, and speak the truths that need to be heard, whether or not they may be wanted. People need to hear the truth from someone who is not afraid to speak it. Guide them, and help them think."

As she spoke, the flowers in her hair dropped their tendrils of ivy, tumbling down to where the plant growing up from the ground encircled her, growing somehow in to it rather than around it.

"Lizzy. Of all of us, I think you have sacrificed the most. Again and again, people ask things of you, and you give them no matter how much it hurts, because you strive to make the world a better place, to let the conflicts fade away. Remember, though, that you, too, have value. Promise me you won't let them take more from you than you can give. You may not acknowledge it yourself, but you are a leader, one of the most prominent voices in this world. Lead them, and help them become better."

That was enough, she thought, of words and promises. She turned her hand to the vines that encircled her, and the tendrils caught her wrist and pierced through the skin, slowly growing into it as she raised her arm to the fading horizon. "It's all right," she said softly. "It doesn't hurt. I'm not afraid. It's just... becoming home."

The last rays of the sun dropped below the horizon, and the ivy overtook the girl within, twisting and hardening until there was nothing left but a maple-tree, ivy-wreathed and crowned in flowers. The blight retreated, and the Arboretum was at peace with itself.

Where are you?

Night, and there was only darkness. The trees above caught the light of the stars and moon and cast them back, returning only shadows beneath the canopy. Vines crept through the shadows slowly, pale white flowers opening in the darkness, beacons to capture what little light remained.

Hey!

It was the slowest of assaults, and yet unhindered it swept away what might have been opposition. There was nothing that tried to stop it, only places for it to grow. The tendrils wrapped themselves where they chose, choking out life when it became too prominent.

Hey!

Listen!

There was always a little light. It flickered, it fluttered, sometimes it faded or fell, but there was always a little light. Lacy outlines, like the veins left by a maple seed after it had faded away, only a trace of what had been - what it had not become, what it never would become. Once a seed. Now... only a remnant.

Still, there was always a little life.

It whispered, and the shadows drew back.

Do you know Where you are?

Sun-dappled forest, ivy, flowers, hope. Curiosity and hesitance, shyness, bravery. "I know who I am." A whisper. Was it a whisper? It flickered away, maybe unheard.

Do you know Where you are?

It was an easy question, but the answer wasn't easy. At least, it didn't seem so.

Mitsuri, Mitsuri... Do you know Where you are?

Pathways through forests, little streams, little lakes. People laughing, talking, walking. A cabin on a hill, flowers and friendships. "I'm in the Arboretum." Always there. One way or another. Quiet of night, as the shadows shivered under the trees.

Do you know Where you are? Kaede, Kaede, do you know Where you are?

"I'm in..." Quiet of shadows, silencing the words. There was always a little light. It held fast, and found the answer. "I am the Arboretum."

Always. One way or another.

Aurora?

The shadows stretched out, and the ghost orchids opened their petals to the budding darkness. Eerie, it called her, lilting, singing, haunting.

Aurora.... Aurora....

Ivy winding up a tree, winding, winding. Slowly around the spiral as the shadows beckoned. A voice from childhood, half-forgotten. Whispering in the darkness. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday...

...sixteenth birthday... sixteenth birthday....

...she shall prick her finger...

Ivy shifting, taking a different form, morphing into the strangling tendrils of the orchid, capturing, holding, piercing.

Kaede Aurora... Kaede Aurora...

...and die.

...Do you know Where you are?

...there is always a little life....

What is real?

I know... who I am. Where I am.

What I cannot be.

I never was.

I'm not real.

In the darkness, the Arboretum... the girl sat up quietly, a whisper on her lips as the orchid climbed its way up the circle. "I'm not real."

Her hand stretched out towards the shadows, feeling them hold her. They knew her, in a way that no one else could. They were lost. She knew where she was, but they were lost. Once, they had known where they were, too. Long ago, before all of this. They had passed into something else, as all things did in time. There was no fault in fading, but the fault lay in their coming back when they should not have. They had been called, and they had been made to come, and they were more real than they should have been.

Once, they would have been her friends. The world had changed, though, and made them something they were not, with no home of their own, and they could not know where they were, and so they chipped away at reality, looking for somewhere they could no longer be.

They devoured the sunlight, in hopes that maybe they could gain enough of it to be what they once were. In its wake, though, they left only shadow and ghosts. Ivy and orchids. All things fell before the onslaught of time. Nothing could be real forever.

Some things were never real at all.

And yet... there was always a little light.

Night at the Arboretum was quiet. All the visitors and employees had gone home, and by now even Lizzy had turned in to bed, and everything was hushed, quietly sleeping, preparing for a new day. In the earth, roots drew deeper, seeking out water, and leaves above them shivered off the early dewdrops.

The sun was above, high noon fading slowly towards the dusk. Leafy green branches made shade on the ground below, and sunlight dappled through the leaves. In the clearings the shadows stretched out farther. Kaede sat up, ivy of morning glory vines twining through her fingertips, little runners spreading out across the clearing, dotted by pale white blossoms, opening to the sunlight, closing unobtrusively where her shadow fell across them. She stood up carefully, glancing at the sky above, then let her gaze fall down again, back to the flowers.

Somewhere within the Arboretum was a flower she hadn't planted herself - one that had been given to her as a gift by a very dear friend. Like all things, Kaede had done her best to help it grow. Delicate and weak, it needed help more than most things in her Arboretum, and so she had done what she could to help it root itself, to help it find a place. To help it find a home.

Even though she had watched the shadows swirling around Rana as she planted it, tainting everything she touched.

It hadn't always been like that. Kaede hadn't thought much of them at all, other than as some strange something that she'd tangled with in Minnesota. But... something had happened, when she had first been in Sierra Leone. She'd been... she wasn't even quite sure what she had been. But the Arboretum had reached out to her, enfolded her, protected her. And when the protection hadn't been quite enough, it had given of itself to heal her. It had worked, and she did not regret it, because it had allowed her to do more to help than she otherwise might have been able to.

But... she was more of the Arboretum than she had been before, and that had apparently brought... changes. Kaede wasn't quite sure why, or how, or what it meant, but when Lizzy had returned from Washington bearing one of the strange shadow entities within her, Kaede had known, and the Arboretum had known. It had been protected against such things, she understood, unassailable.

But even the most defensible of fortresses could not be victorious if it was empty. Lizzy was Kaede's friend, and so in order to help her regain her home, Kaede had thinned those defenses, and allowed the shadows in. Welcomed them in, even, as best as she was able.

She did not think it was coincidence that Rana had showed up at the Arboretum, visiting for the very first time, just shortly thereafter. And the flower she had planted...

Was just a pretty flower, that needed a little love and support.

Kaede's shadow fell over the clearing, hazy and uncertain, except in one spot, where it was so black it almost seemed solid. She peered at it curiously. It was an odd shape, whispery and curvy, stretching out little arms. Like it was waiting for an embrace.

An afterimage, inverted, slowly recognizable as the shape of a ghost orchid. It lingered on the ground, and she didn't like the way it blocked the sunlight. She stepped aside, but though the rest of her shadow went with her, the splotch remained where it was, and when she moved she felt as if it was torn out of her.

Through the tears, she watched the dark spot send out its own tendrils, burying itself in the soil and taking deeper root, and the morning glories that had stretched over the vines shuddered and twisted and surrendered their blossoms, shapes altering, still pale white, but now echoing the orchid's form, stretching out farther into the Arboretum...

Kaede started, and sat up in the silent cabin, pressing a hand to the throbbing spot on her leg that ached as it followed her out of her dream. She looked out the window, still the dark of night, and shook her head slightly. Only a dream.

She had never been any good at lying, not even to herself. She bit her lip, and looked outside again, then pulled at the Arboretum, tugging herself through it and stepping out in the clearing before Rana's orchid, falling before it as the sharp pain in her leg refused to bear her weight. The orchid shone innocently in the moonlight, speckled with quiet dew, rooting itself ever deeper into the trees.

She put a hand over her face, hiding a frown, and teardrops joined the morning dew.

I can't pull it out. I can't... I can't banish them. They're my friends. And Lizzy, this place is her home. After Grim City, she doesn't really have another one. It's all she has. I can't make her give that up. I can't ask them to leave.

I just... have to... adapt.

She closed her eyes, and wiped the tears away, wondering what the Arboretum was going to be like, when things had settled. Wondering what sort of a home she was really creating.

Wondering what she was going to become.

Just going to do a quick update. I've been working a lot with Kaede recently on developing her abilities through various RPs, but in order that everything's out and available, here's the updated version.

Kaede is much more aware of her abilities than she used to be, although some of them are still elusive. Kaede currently retains noncombatant status (she has never engaged in combat with another individual or NPC) and I expect her to continue to be primarily a non-combat character. Though she will defend herself and others if attacked, her goal will always be to disable and disengage, and she will always choose not to fight if possible.

Abilities: Botanical

Active Bonding (Active / Emergency Passive)

Kaede's main ability is the ability to bond with plant life in the area. She melds herself with it, or it with herself, and is then able to exert control. While bonded, she also maintains a neural connection with the bonded flora - meaning she is able to access its senses. Although she wouldn't describe what the feedback is in terms of the five senses humans usually feel, she does have some sense of perception through these plants.

Most of the time her bonding ability is an active skill, but it's possible that if Kaede were in true critical status (unconscious or otherwise unable to use her ability), it might activate passively and draw her into a protective bond.

Side note: The flowers and vines in her hair are innate and active-bonded. They are actually a part of Kaede, and are often indicative of her current status. They're also hypersensitive.

Germinate / Generate (Active)

Kaede is able to cause plant life to germinate at limited range. While she mostly works with existant seeds buried in the soil that might not have sprouted, she is also able to create her own cultures, although this is much more difficult. It is easier for her to generate native flora than invasive species.

Invigorate (Active / Active Bonded)

Kaede is able to increase the growth rate of plants in her area, although the more she asks of them, the more difficult this becomes. It is much easier for her to do this with plants that are bonded to her, so if she really needs something to grow, she will usually bond in to it to give her greater control. At present time she has not figured out how to invigorate nonbonded plants.

Adapt (Active Bonded)

Kaede is able to modify a plant's genetic makeup to make take on characteristics of different plants. She is only able to do this with plants she has actively bonded with. This skill is quite difficult, and she is currently only able to use it small-scale, mostly in the construction of personal effects like "armor."

Tree Portal (Active)

Kaede is able to use kind of a rudimentary teleport system to move between trees on the Arboretum grounds. She can not use this ability to move offsite, she is able to teleport to the Arboretum from anywhere. Once she is able to establish additional sanctum-groves, she will be able to teleport between them. She has sanctums in progress in Minnesota, Nebraska, upstate New York, and the ruins of Grim City.

Grove Synchronization (Passive)

Kaede's abilities automatically synchronize themselves with her locations. Consequently, she is actually more powerful at locations which are familiar to her. The amount of power that builds up at a location is related both to the time she spends there and the amount of power she expends while in that place. While there is a degree of diminishing returns, she is essentially able to recover and use a large portion of the energy she has expended at a location in the past while in that location.

The current locations where she has developed synchronicity are her parents' estate where she grew up, Mitsuri Arboretum in Japan where she also spent much of her childhood (location link to be provided later after I finish writing it up), the secret Heroes of Tomorrow Initiative base, the former nGod city area in Nebraska, Minnesota (near the twin cities), and the former Grim City. She is not able to synchronize with non-Earth locations.

Grove Inspiration (Passive)

Plant life in places where Kaede has expended her powers tends to be remarkably healthy for some time. Is this ability even useful for anything? Probably not, unless you want to grow tomatoes.

Grove Regeneration (Passive)

Kaede is able to regenerate from injury over time by drawing power from her groves. This ability is actually the only reason that Kaede survived the car accident that killed her brother, although she is unaware of this fact. She is able to draw on the power from anywhere, but the effect is greatly magnified when she is at one of her grove locations. This ability is preservative but not instantaneous - while Kaede would certainly heal more fully and more quickly from a broken bone than a normal human, she would not be able to do so immediately. Recovery time variation tends to be around half to three-fourths normal recovery time, depending on the severity of the injury and how close Kaede is to one of her sanctums during her recovery. She is also able to temporarily replace damaged body parts with plants.

Abilities: Divinity/Creation

Kaede is beginning to develop a distinct set of abilities outside the botanical realm, based on some variant of life or soul power. It has been strongly implied in several areas that Kaede is an infant deity of some sort, though she does not believe this.

Self-Assurance

Kaede knows who she is. Her certainty grants her resistance or immunity to most mental status effects, including mind control, insanity, nightmare attacks, and so on. Her certainty of her self allows her to easily identify what is not self and negate it.

Ageless

Kaede hasn't been aging for about the last couple years. It is slowly beginning to become more apparent.

Object Empowering

Kaede is able to take any object that has its basis in life or soul energy and use her life/creation powers to make it grow, much like she makes her plants grow. So far she's managed to do this to OrangeWater's sword, but the potential exists for her to do it to any soulbound weapon, armor, or object.

Alter Reality (Arboretum only)

If Kaede is a god of something, she is the god of the Arboretum. Its laws are her own, and she is capable of adapting them. She can change what the definition of real is inside the Arboretum. The Arboretum's innate refusal to accept combat is linked to this ability, but it follows that Kaede is the absolute determining factor of what happens, as long as she's standing in her teeny little patch of dirt. Mostly this ability is just there so that I can negate anyone trying to blow up my Arboretum, but Kaede's trying really hard to use it to figure out how to get a flower past The Adjucator's reality nuke.

Abilities: Combinant

Animate Botany

Kaede is able to create a mobile botanical entity separate from herself. She is just beginning to get the hang of this, so initially it'll be more like a moving flower, but eventually will work up to something more like a nonsentient Ent creature, and in top form she'll be able to create a guardian Thorn Dragon.

Kaede Mitsuri was in trouble.

Possibly more trouble than she had ever been in, in her slightly more than fifteen years. She sat on a white leather couch in a sitting room, immaculately dressed in a gray skirt and white blouse, without a single trace of the usual smudges of dirt that tended to show up on her person. She squirmed uncomfortably, midway through a battle that had gone bad a long time ago and didn't look like it was going to turn for the better any time soon.

"...and there is absolutely no reason you should have been there, young lady!" Emmaline Mitsuri was a gracious host, a charming lady, and thoroughly pissed off at her youngest offspring. "Grim City is no place for a young woman even when it's not being destroyed, and with all those characters there, it's even worse." Kaede thought about how Grim City was her friend Lizzy's home, or had been until it had been destroyed. She thought about how some of those 'characters' were ones she was proud to call friends, or would have liked to know better - but she didn't say those things, because it wouldn't have made any difference. She glanced to her father, often a bastion of sympathy, but his stance was just as hard as her mother's. Grim City was a lost cause, for them. They didn't know Lizzy. They didn't know she cried about its loss, they didn't know about the alcohol, the cigarettes, the way Lizzy was trying to drown her regrets. Kaede knew. She didn't know how to help, but she knew. She should have been in Japan, with Lizzy. But instead she was at her family's estate in upstate New York, because she'd felt like her parents, too, had a right to speak.

She still thought it was probably the right choice, but it didn't make it easy. Especially when she just wanted to get back to Japan and keep an eye on Lizzy.

"How do you think I feel when I watch the news and see my baby there, trying to get herself killed?"

Kaede sighed. "I'm sorry, mom. But I needed to be there." She was not going to back down on that. Lizzy had asked her to be there. Lizzy had needed her to be there, and so Kaede had needed to go. Some things were complicated - this had not been one of them. "I use an alternate identity. The family will be safe." She still felt weird about being 'Morning Glory,' but it did help a little, with keeping her family's life separate from her meta life.

"It's not the identity we're worried about, Kaede," her father put in, in his strong but eminently reasonable tone. "It's you. We don't want you getting hurt."

"I'm not trying to get hurt. I'm just trying to help." She could match the reasonable tone. Her voice might have been quieter, but it had its own strength.

"By walking up to a madman with a flower?" By now, the details of the Grim City event had gotten out to the public, or at least the parts of the public as well-off and well-connected as Kaede's parents. Her mother had, unfortunately, been less than impressed.

Kaede smiled slightly, with a hint of mystery. "It worked, though," she said, with a little sparkle in her green eyes. "For a moment, it worked."

"Until someone tried to kill you!"

Kaede gave her mother a confused look for a moment, then recalled. "Oh. Alexis. She didn't mean to, it was just an accident." She hadn't had a chance to talk to Alexis since the event. Maybe she should try to do that, just to make sure that Alexis knew that Kaede didn't hold things against her. And maybe to make sure that Alexis wasn't holding things against herself.

"You know these peop-.... Kaede Aurora Mitsuri, that does not make it any better!"

Kaede giggled. She didn't mean to, it just sort of happened. Her mother's righteous fury, all unleashed, and the Kaede Aurora she hadn't heard in a couple years at least. This, too, is part of who I am. She got up off the couch and went to her mother, putting her arms around her. Kaede had never really been one for hugging, at home. She'd learned that from her team, while she'd been away, growing up. "I'm sorry, Mama," she said gently, "I'll try not to worry you. But this is who I am. I love you both. Very much. Who you are is part of what's helped me become myself. But I can't change the person you've helped me become because it worries you. It worries me, too, sometimes. But that's a part of me - it doesn't change me. I'm happy with who I am."

Her parents exchanged a glance, worried and uncertain, but her mother hugged her back, then held her at arms length and stared for a moment at the girl who still looked like a child, but apparently had been doing a fair bit of growing up. "Well," she said, broachingly. "At least be a person who calls more often, then."

Some changes were easy, and right. "Of course."

Mitsuri Arboretum is located in the Nagano region in central Japan. The closest city is Matsumoto, a city with a population of around 250,000. Mitsuri Arboretum itself is in the mountains, about 10 km east of the city. It is owned and sponsored by the Mitsuri family, most notably telecommunications mogul Toshiro Mitsuri. While the Mitsuri family maintains a private residence in the arboretum, the majority of the grounds are open to the public. Admission is free, but it is suggested that patrons make a donation to help support the upkeep of the arboretum. Many paths and trails for walking and hiking wind through the area, and there are also smaller cultivated areas featuring botanical gardens of various sorts. The Arboretum itself encompasses more than 500 acres of land, much of it forested, although it is scattered throughout with various open meadows and the aforementioned gardens.

Matsumoto

Matsumoto hosts all the standards you would expect in a city, including an airport, public transportation via railway, highways, roads, and colleges. It is also home of the lovely Matsumoto Castle, a popular tourist destination.

Climate in the region tends towards humidity - summers are hot with frequent precipitation, but winters are cold, especially higher up in the mountains.

Mitsuri Cabin

Mitsuri Cabin is a cabin as defined by the extremely wealthy - it's in the woods, and doesn't even have a pool or tennis courts. It does, however, have running water, electricity, 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, a living room, common room, and game room. While it is located on the Arboretum grounds, Mitsuri Cabin is owned as a private residence by the Mitsuri family and is not open to arboretum visitors.

Visiting the Arboretum

The Arboretum is open to all during daytime hours. Helpful staff will be able to assist visitors with any inquiries they might have. Staff members are required to be fluent in both English and Japanese, though some staff members are fluent in other languages as well.

Roleplaying Here

This location is neither secret nor impossible to access, so anyone wishing to roleplay at this location can just walk right in. NPC staff and NPC visitors will be present during daytime hours; a small after-hours staff is maintained as well. Any characters are welcome to roleplay here, however, this is a peaceful location and those engaging in combat will be requested to leave. As such, it makes a lovely location for peace talks or meetings. When Kaede Mitsuri is in residence, noncombat status is enforced - the Arboretum responds to her noncombatant status and will detain or remove any offenders. They will not be harmed. Don't ask her how or why this works, she doesn't know either - like many of her abilities, it seems to be passive.

Entrance to the Mitsuri Cabin is by invitation only. It is protected by state of the art security systems. It's okay, you're not missing much. It doesn't even have a pool.

Kaede is unaware of several of her abilities. This is because many of her powers are largely passive. At some point she will be able to gain active control over some of these powers and use them more fully, but right now she has very little idea how her powers work and what she's capable of. However, I wanted to spend some time figuring out what the character is capable of so as to better develop her. Kaede currently retains noncombatant status (she has never engaged in combat with another individual or NPC) and I expect her to continue to be primarily a non-combat character. Though she will defend herself and others if attacked, her goal will always be to disable and disengage, and she will always choose not to fight if possible.

Abilities

Active Bonding (Active / Emergency Passive)

Kaede's main ability is the ability to bond with plant life in the area. She melds herself with it, or it with herself, and is then able to exert control. While bonded, she also maintains a neural connection with the bonded flora - meaning she is able to access its senses. Although she wouldn't describe what the feedback is in terms of the five senses humans usually feel, she does have some sense of perception through these plants.

Most of the time her bonding ability is an active skill, but it's possible that if Kaede were in true critical status (unconscious or otherwise unable to use her ability), it might activate passively and draw her into a protective bond.

Side note: The flowers and vines in her hair are innate and active-bonded. They are actually a part of Kaede, and are often indicative of her current status. They're also hypersensitive.

Germinate / Generate (Active)

Kaede is able to cause plant life to germinate at limited range. While she mostly works with existant seeds buried in the soil that might not have sprouted, she is also able to create her own cultures, although this is much more difficult. It is easier for her to generate native flora than invasive species.

Invigorate (Active / Active Bonded)

Kaede is able to increase the growth rate of plants in her area, although the more she asks of them, the more difficult this becomes. It is much easier for her to do this with plants that are bonded to her, so if she really needs something to grow, she will usually bond in to it to give her greater control. At present time she has not figured out how to invigorate nonbonded plants.

Adapt (Active Bonded)

Kaede is able to modify a plant's genetic makeup to make take on characteristics of different plants. She is only able to do this with plants she has actively bonded with. This skill is quite difficult, and she is currently only able to use it small-scale, mostly in the construction of personal effects like "armor."

Tree Portal (Active, Arboretum location only)

Kaede is able to use kind of a rudimentary teleport system to move between trees on the Arboretum grounds. She can not use this ability to move offsite, but in time she will be able to teleport to the Arboretum from anywhere. Once she is able to establish additional sanctum-groves, she will be able to teleport between them, but she has not yet developed this ability.

Grove Synchronization (Passive)

Kaede's abilities automatically synchronize themselves with her locations. Consequently, she is actually more powerful at locations which are familiar to her. The amount of power that builds up at a location is related both to the time she spends there and the amount of power she expends while in that place. While there is a degree of diminishing returns, she is essentially able to recover and use a large portion of the energy she has expended at a location in the past while in that location.

The current locations where she has developed synchronicity are her parents' estate where she grew up, Mitsuri Arboretum in Japan where she also spent much of her childhood (location link to be provided later after I finish writing it up), the secret Heroes of Tomorrow Initiative base, and the former nGod city area in Nebraska. She is not able to synchronize with non-Earth locations.

Grove Inspiration (Passive)

Plant life in places where Kaede has expended her powers tends to be remarkably healthy for some time. Is this ability even useful for anything? Probably not, unless you want to grow tomatoes.

Grove Regeneration (Passive)

Kaede is able to regenerate from injury over time by drawing power from her groves. This ability is actually the only reason that Kaede survived the car accident that killed her brother, although she is unaware of this fact. She is able to draw on the power from anywhere, but the effect is greatly magnified when she is at one of her grove locations. This ability is preservative but not instantaneous - while Kaede would certainly heal more fully and more quickly from a broken bone than a normal human, she would not be able to do so immediately. Recovery time variation tends to be around half to three-fourths normal recovery time, depending on the severity of the injury and how close Kaede is to one of her sanctums during her recovery.