A successful ceremony, I agree.

Oh right, your pine is alive! That's why the word 'hostage' keeps floating around, @Pearline, sometimes two sets of beings can never reach a true understanding once ideas have been planted. I'll come over some time and meet the aspen. Congratulations on your realisation of immortality! Here's that jar and @Young Jim Horner. Best of luck solving his... little problem, poor sap.

It's poetry in motion. ~~scuttles away, rhythmically waving vines~~

@Hemo the Magnificent, how nice to finally meet you face to leaf. Are you going to be teaching here? I've managed just fine without attending classes so far but it's true Man's fascination with you Mister Hemo goes way, way back into our dim past. Probably back to prehistoric times when Man discovered he could defend himself better with a club than with his hands. That's Man alright. I'd rather not use you as a fertiliser, last resort only, yes? It sends disturbing shivers down my xylem.

Hemo the Magnificent does not merely "donate" his self for some "experiment!" Does that pretender not understand the full power and wonder of my gift?!! Nay, I say! Until the true master of the ritual gives me guide, my pulse pumps true only for @Akane Kiyoko and her green and viney guide, the one and sprouting @Silverfawn!

While it is true I make excellent fertilizer, one must admit that is kind of gross. But it is my power beyond this mortal realm that breathes the wind into story, the ideal in man's heart, the rush in the waves of our desires!

Only I, Hemo the Magnificent, can fill that role!!

The tree ceremony was certainly successful, I think. The Pines still emanate a sense of hatred, but they always were prickly fellows. After the ceremony, poor @Hemo the Magnificent asked if he could join. I could still use his blood for the @Young Jim Horner experiment, as I had no time to complete it. The energy of the star has kept him from shrinking, but a drop of DNA should help him grow.
Thom got to tag along, but got bored and started to walk away. She told me she got stuck in a portal and when the dance was over, I saw her riding on the back of an alpaca. Now, I have a pet alpaca. And what to name it?
There was a lot of dancing, and then we did a special chant and sacrificed our sangre. Suddenly, a new soul was among us, and this one had hope. We have planted a seed that will become an era of peace with Treekind.

Humans think blood means disease, wounds, pain. But @Akane Kiyoko and @Silverfawn know me for for what i really am: Health! Life! I am the song of the lark, the blush on the cheek, the spring of the lamb. I am the precious sacrifice ancient man offered up to his gods. I am the sacred wine in the silver chalice. Down through the ages I am the price man pays for freedom. But to you scientists I am a smear on a slide, a stain, a specimen, a sickness. My story is a song only poets should sing, not disease lovers!

I will join this group of eight, though I alone would be enough!

Just so you know, @Silverfawn, I never killed any trees, I aided the nourishment of a LIVE aspen with a little something I learned in Souls 101. I'll always volunteer myself for the safekeeping of PHS, though. And I'll definitely give all of my blood to SCIENCE! (I've done all of the math, and I figured it out: Being soulless, I'm immortal. Practically. I'll explain it later.)
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that A) I'll be needing that mason jar before we begin for another science project, and B) The pines don't know who to be angry at so they just directed their anger onto the only student with a real Christmas tree. Which is alive!
*walks away humming Thomas Dolby tunes*
What, Thom? Do you not like my humming?
Oh yeah, do you mind if my cat tags along? I don't know if any of you speak animal, but he is meowing right now about how much he loves watching things blow up. (Thom, nothing's going to blow up!)

I heard it through the grapevine, though it's a little slow with the cold. I finally got around to talking with those pines, formal communication went quite well considering I'm not from around these parts. A good thing I've been spending most of my time inside or I wouldn't have the leaves for it at this time of year. It seems the shimmy gene has been getting around, I knew I couldn't trust Ted to keep it to himself. Maybe you'd better talk to him @Alexander, if this is what happens when pines get hold of it, just imagine what the weeds would get up to. Now, our evergreen guests are rustling about the place with strings of coloured lights and we're completely out of AA batteries. Camouflage or something apparently, it beats me.

The last time I volunteered for something @Akane Kiyoko I can't say it went to plan, so this time I've read up on all procedures and alerted trusty @Beefur9 in advance. As for the blood, my vascular system is somewhat... Completely and utterly different to yours, so I am instead nominating @timberlina and @Emilia Plissken, you have the knowhow. Along with @Wonderwall97, by now you should have somehow realised what you've gotta do. The woods are evidently calling to your blood. @dimvu as long as you keep a hold of your legs. @Harry Berger, it will be painless. Alexand- wait, no, I bet there's far too much sugar in your system. @Pearline because you angered the pines in the first place. And @Nobody and @Young Jim Horner who have been expressing some interesting psychic abilities recently. The latter didn't seem too enthusiastic so I carried him here in a mason jar. Any complaints? No? Too late. All you'll need to do is prick your human phalange with a pine needle and drop a couple of drips into the soil after Akane has finished speaking. If you recite some of your favourite song lyrics as you do it will only strengthen the rite. Of course it's a pine sapling we'll be planting, but you understand I've already sabotaged it and it will be incorporating the DNA of 8 exemplary Psyhigh students. For science.

I believe we're about ready to begin.

Aw, heck, @Akane Kiyoko, that's mighty flattering of you, but I think it'd be best for me to give those crazy pines a wide berth for the time being. They already got a taste of my blood at the dance and it didn't seem to do a thing but enrage the pokey buggers.

You might want to try @Juan Cena, he's got the equipment for it, and that @Emilia Plissken is a good sort. And @polo. @Midna's nice. If you need some muscle, @PenguinInAnArmour could be good backup. Oh! And what about that @Alexander? Seems like being Student of the Month oughta be good for something, huh?

Also perhaps @Silverfawn or @Emilia Plissken? I'll ask around...

@timberlina, I think you're right about the pines being asian pines: The festival I they told me about is a traditional asian festival. Speaking of which, we still need volunteers for the "ujiiko" of the festival... eight people are still needed! I would be honored to participate, but sadly, I'll have to oversee, beacuse the blood tribute (just a couple drops, don't worry) can't be performed by me (deadspot hazard). It would be great if @timberlina would participate.... She seems to know a lot about the trees.

Last night sure was a fiasco. And it would have been a massacre if we hadn't been able to beat the pines in the melee. It's rotten knowing it was my fault for putting the student body in danger like that. But I was taught not to traffic in regret.

The truth is, if it weren't for my mysterious Timberjack visitor, I wouldn't have been able to hold the pines back, and the school would have fallen. But in the midst of the battle, I saw the flash of Mackinaw plaid out of the corner of my eye, and a Timberjack attacking furiously using the notorious Black Oak technique. This meant the Timberjack was clearly from the Iron Sequoia School - the arch rival to my own school, Yellow Birch. One hundred years ago our branches split, on account of some squabble between Timberjack Masters. Ever since, we stay well clear of one another, and if we find ourselves in each other's way, well, things don't end well.

I responded by fending off the savage pines using the Dance of Peeling Bark--a signature Yellow Birch school move--but I'll bet you I didn't need to announce my lineage. This sneaky visitor knows a lot more about me than I do them, I reckon.

When it was over, boughs were snapped an noses were bloodied, but we had won the day and the pines retreated back into the forest. I just can't figure these pines out. Hopefully @Akane Kiyoko will have better luck with them than I had. They must be some kind of Asian pine or something.

My inscrutable itinerant Timberjack disappeared into the woods as well. But now that I've identified them, I'm sure it's only a matter of time till our paths cross again.