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Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2019 12:03 pm
Quote: Rainfall is rare in Destiny City in the winter time. There have been a few light showers between the occasional snow but it’s never been enough to be significant. In some places, it’s just enough for a thin layer of ice to cover the ground and make it a little slippery, but ultimately it’s not enough to worry about. In an inconspicuous place in town, you step into an ice filled hole and it shatters. The hole itself seems maybe three feet wide and if you’ve ever seen the hole before you know it’s only a few inches deep at most. Except, when the ice shatters, you fall, plummeting as if into a lake of frozen water. It’s pitch black beneath the ground and only pale blue lights shimmer above you. The darkness around you is never ending and you can’t make out the details of anything except the shrinking hole above you. Maybe you remember how to swim and pull yourself out, maybe you black out and feel someone else pulling you out--either way, your frozen, soaking body is pulled from the puddle. The chill is immense, but if you look at the hole after being pulled out, all you can see is the ground below. There’s no sign that what you saw was real--except for the water soaking you. Pendour was trying her hardest to like the rain. When she'd decided to come out, powered, and see what was going on in the city despite the drops dripping down her windows, she'd been thinking back to summers, when she'd run outside in those afternoon thunderstorms with her mouth open to the sky and her bare feet ankle-deep in puddles. She'd felt joy deep in her bones. There were some things to love about this rain, too. It still made a very satisfying pitter-patter on the ground, and it left the sidewalks with even more of a sheen than normal, probably because of the ice. However, she'd very badly miscalculated the temperature, and at the moment her bones were mostly just cold as cold. She was about to just call it a night and turn back when she felt something in the distance. Something warm. Well, it wasn't something true-warm, but it was something Order-warm, and Order-bright, too, and that was good enough for her, and she thought from just how it felt that it might even be another knight. She liked that. She did like meeting people, and so she kept on, until it felt even closer and warmer, and when she was close enough, she gently called out a "Hello?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2019 12:44 pm
The rain in December had been so surprising to Sumner that he had gone to check it out. Luckily it was on one of his days off as the indoor pool that he lifeguarded at was closed for the holidays which meant he could be out a bit later. Still, December being so warm and having rain instead of snow made him a bit wary. January and February were right around the corner, and no snow now could mean a huge storm later... Still, it was interesting to get out and test how well he could move around in this water, even if he wasn't swimming in it. Would his boots slip? So far they hadn't. Would he get hypothermia? He was cold, a lot more than usual now, but he didn't believe he was in any danger yet. He would have to make sure that he could see his lips at some point though. If they turned the same shade as his uniform then he needed to get back inside asap. After half an hour outside he thought he felt a familiar kind of aura. One somewhat like the aura of that other Page that he had met, but this one was more powerful. It was hard to see anything outside though, even with the lights. He walked closer to it and soon enough heard someone call out a Hello. "Hey!" He couldn't help but respond in such a way, but he knew the situation was dangerous. They were out at night and even if it was raining there was still ice out and about. He would have to find whomever had called out as soon as possible. He took a few more steps forward and though that he could see someone in the distance...
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Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2019 3:12 pm
Pendour's vision had a nasty tendency to play tricks on her, and the rain wasn't helping at all with letting her see things clearly. She spent a good five seconds squinting into the distance as she kept walking. She thought she saw someone, but it was hard to tell. Then she heard the voice call back out to her, and she let out a breath. Part of her wanted to run to him. Part of her was hoping for some kind of friendly face in all this miserable weather that badly, but she didn't want to risk slipping on any ice or tripping on her long skirt if it somehow ended up tangled in her heels. She kept up her careful pace, and before too long that figure started to look more and more like a human. The blue stood out to her, even from a distance, but now she was starting to make out some of the details, and the corners of her lips started to turn up into a smile. She reached up to pull a few strands of rain-soaked hair out of her face, just to double check that she was seeing things right, but when she looked again, the scale patterns on his clothes and the trident symbols on his boots were still there. He was a page, and not just that. "Neptune," she murmured, soft as soft, and then she said it louder as her smile grew bigger and bigger. "Neptune!" She grabbed the symbols hanging from the loose strand of pearls at her waist, and she tilted them towards him so he could see. "You're like me. Hello," she said, voice going almost reverent again. She'd seen a few Neptune knights in passing, but she'd never really had a chance to talk to them. It was surreal.
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Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2019 4:14 pm
Sumner stopped when the figure came towards him, and the first thing that he noticed was her outfit. It looked like a mermaid was walking to him. It was both weird and amazing and he couldn't help but blush at the figure. The second, when she was finally close enough, was her eye. For a moment, it made him wonder what she had gone through to receive such an injury. But that was quickly taken from his mind when the other Knight seemed to light up at his presence and made sure to show him that she was a Neptune Knight also. He couldn't help but grin. "Yeah, uh hey." For a moment he wasn't sure what to say, but he knew that she was most likely waiting for more conversation and knew that he was staring at her, but he couldn't help it. He mentally shook himself back into reality. "You're the first Neptune Knight that I've seen besides myself." He hadn't met too many knights though. "I'm Sumner, just a Page at this point." He said giving her a slight bow. It was probably a silly thing to do, but she looked so much more... elegant than he was he couldn't help it. "May I ask what your name is?" He asked, feeling more and more relaxed now that he had actually encountered one of his "fellow" Knights.
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2019 8:59 am
Pendour wasn't so distracted that she didn't notice him staring. It seemed that he was looking more at her dress than the eye, which was fine. She understood. She liked getting glimpses of it in sore windows when she got the chance. She just wasn't quite sure how o react, so she just stood there for a few seconds, blinking and turning her bad eye away out of instinct. She might have been looking him a little in turn. His hair was a nice color, she decided. When he introduced himself, seemed to focus again and she gave a little nod. "Oh, I'm Pendour," she said. "Um, a squire? It's nice as nice to meet you." She gave a little bow in turn, trying to follow his lead but it didn't feel like quite enough, so she stepped forwards, reaching out a hand for a shake. The points of her high heels hit one of the thin patches of ice that the freezing rain had left all across the city. She slipped first, just a little, and reached her arms out to steady herself, but then she heard a crack. It was loud as loud, like a lake breaking open instead of sidewalk ice. She looked up a Sumner for a second, brows knit, eyes wide as wide, and then the ice went out completely. She fell down and down, vanishing beneath the pavement.
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Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2019 6:57 pm
"A squire?" Well, it wasn't too much of a surprise. She did look like she had quite a bit more experience than he did. It felt good though, to finally know a Neptune Knight that he could possibly ask some questions and maybe get some answers! Of course, talking to the other Knight had been okay, but he just hadn't felt the same... similarity as he did with Pendour. "Pendour. It's a beautiful name." He wasn't sure where Sumner came from, but he liked it too. Hers was better though, it fit her well. He noticed that she was reaching out a hand for shaking towards him and just as he was about to grip it with his own when there was suddenly a very loud sound. It made Sumner jump, and Pendour looked at him for a moment, a surprised expression on her face before she fell into... the pavement?! "Pendour?!" He said trying to understand what had happened. Perhaps it wasn't payment? What was he supposed to do? It only went through his head for a moment, before his body reacted and his hand went straight for the pavement. If he were really thinking about it, he would realize that he could quite easily break his fingers in many ways with the speed he was sending his hand at, but he didn't and instead, his hand, and then part of his arm, vanished beneath the surface! He couldn't believe it, but now that he knew that reality was most likely breaking he could at least try to reach out to her and hope that she would be able to reach back. If not, he would have to go in there too...
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2019 12:03 pm
Someone listening closely enough could hear a splash among the sounds of ice and rain, but it was soft as soft. It was the sound of a champion diver, or of a mermaid vanishing under the waves. It was cold. It was dark. It was wet and wet and wet. Pendour's muscles froze. She did not feel like a mermaid. Pendour did not feel much like anything at all. For a moment, she didn't even recognize the fact that she was underwater. Her skin prickled with a strange, icy burn. She couldn't see. She couldn't see. She couldn't see anything. If there had been air, she would have whimpered, or maybe she would have screamed. That was about the moment when she started to realize what had happened, and at that point she didn't really wonder about how. Floating there, slowly sinking, she thought a little about why. She thought about Irving and the bones at the bottom of her wonder and some quote she'd read once about how drowning was the best death.She didn't think the person who had written that had ever been in water this cold. She kicked at her shoes until the pearl straps slipped off, and then she started to kick at the water instead. It wasn't an easy thing. Her gown, for all of the Neptune magic in it was heavy, but the panic shifted from freeze to flee and she started moving upward in an awkward and flailing and half-frozen-desperate kind of way. She started to see light, and a bit of the panic subsided. She reached up, feeling for some kind of edge, for something, anything. She found a hand.
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Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:02 pm
For a moment Sumner wondered if he would have to jump in. The problem was there would be no light and he would have no way to find the Squire if he went in himself, which meant that the both of them would be... well probably dead but he wasn't sure how. Drowning? Starvation since it seemed to be a different universe? Who knew. But as he was about to go in himself, he felt a grip on his hand and knew that hit was her. Making sure that he had himself grounded and his other hand not near the edge of the... hole? He started to pull her up, wondering if she would come out, but when his hand did, so did hers, and then her arm, and then her shoulder and he made sure to grab her when he finally could with his other hand and hoist her back onto the concrete. Actual concrete and not whatever the hell that hole had been. And after a moment he looked at her, trying to understand what had happened. But first he had to make sure that she was okay. "Are you all right? Does anywhere hurt?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2019 1:12 pm
The first breath of air was delicious. The relief became less and less after that. Between the magical strength of Sumner and herself, it was easy enough to climb out of the hole, but it became clear as clear very quickly that cold air when you were very wet wasn't much better than cold water. It wasn't much better at all. Pendour's feet were so numb and prickly that even once she was standing, she couldn't tell if she was on solid ground or not, only that each step felt like she was stepping on a bed of sharpened icicles. She didn't let go of Sumner's hand, and she stepped close to him, not thinking at all about how they had just met but only that he was the warmest thing around. "Not hurt," she managed. "I'm c-cold." She squeezed her eyes shut and shimmered for a moment, and then her soaked gown and bare feet were replaced by a fuzzy sweater and boots. That was better. Still not perfect, but better. She looked back at the place that she'd just fallen through, but she couldn't make out any hole now. "That was- Hmm." She had a vague idea, but mostly that just didn't make sense at all.
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Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2019 4:18 pm
Sumner cursed to himself. Of course he should have tried to warm her up! But the situation was just been so... bizarre. It was different when he knew that there was an icy hole in a lake or pond or something or someone was drowning while he was life-guarding. But there... there was nothing! Nothing but concrete and the knowledge that there was some strange hole large enough to fit an adult woman in it and with enough room to swim in... He saw her power down and decided to do the same. He himself had a large coat on with some gloves and took it off, draping it over her. "Let's get you somewhere where you can dry off." The air was freezing! He would need some place too! "My apartment is near here, but if you're closer we can just go there then." Perhaps he should power up and run her there instead? But would that be a problem? After all, apparently Agents could feel where he was, if there was one around there... it would be best to get there without being powered.
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Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 1:28 pm
Sadie's brows knit a little more when she found herself being draped in a coat. "Oh, no," she said, her voice a whisper, even softer than usual. She looked at the man who had just been a Page. "I don't want you to be cold, either." Her heart wasn't so into protesting it, though, because to be honest her hair was still wet down her back, and she pulled the coat a little bit tighter around herself. "Inside sounds better. We can wait out this awful rain." Sadie turned her little half-frown to the sky, feeling frustrated that her attempts to love the weather had led to all this. "Your place is okay." Then she looked back down to the pavement. It had a bit of a glimmer to it, but she was having a hard time telling water from ice, let alone shadows from bottomless pits. "Do you think you can lead the way? I don't know if there's more, but this is just the kind of thing that I, um," she paused while her cheeks went a bit hot and she let out a small but frustrated huff, "Have a lot of trouble seeing."
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Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 5:43 pm
"I'll be fine for now, I'm not the one who got totally soaked. But you're right, we shouldn't be out here for too long." They would need to get inside quickly. He could put her clothes in his dryer if she was okay with it and he could make them hot drinks. Anything would be fine at this point. He nodded, and pointed his hand to the west. "See that apartment complex over there? I'm on the third floor, but there's an elevator if you don't want to climb the stairs." He said, giving her a grin. "It won't be too long though. And then we can just wait for this rain to end. Though if you want to stay for the night, I have another bedroom you could use." For some reason the price of the two-bedrooms versus the one-bedrooms weren't too different and he had decided to get more space. He still kept one of them as a bedroom though, he didn't need an extra room for an office and it let him offer friends a place to stay when they needed it. "We'll get there in no time and we can get you warmed up."
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Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 9:45 am
Unlike any mysteriously deep puddles, Sadie could see the apartment complex as well as anything. "Oh, that's not too far," she said, pulling the coat even tighter around herself with no apologies this time. Her new layers were helping a little bit, but she was still more than ready to get inside and get away from all this. "It's closer than my place for sure." She looked back over to him, a soft smile finding its way through all the worry on her face. "Thank you," she said. Then she followed him towards the warmth.
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