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 Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 4:06 pm
Quote: Prompt 5: Though Destiny City is a busy metropolis, dense forests encircle the city. It's uncommon for wildlife to wander into the city--especially larger creatures--but something is making its mark on Destiny City. Large footprints, humanlike but far too large to belong to any ordinary human, are appearing around Destiny City. They always lead to the woods, and back again--and the strange part is that no one seems to be able to see what has caused them. Cameras distort, and anyone who thinks they've come into contact with the creature can only make out a thick, white fur and something easily nine feet tall. Oddly enough, any surface near the tracks are covered in a sheet of ice, as though whatever passed close to them was so cold it left a frosty trail.
They began their evening as they often did — unpowered so as not to attract attention with their energy signatures, following the trail of a creature that either didn’t exist or wouldn’t be caught so easily. Another day, another creature, another dangerous mission around Destiny City.
As much as Haven enjoyed their research, she had to admit that it got repetitive sometimes.
“It’s probably just some guy in a costume anyway,” she said, carefully stepping over a large, protruding root.
The snow was a few inches deep, crunching beneath their boots. Small flakes danced around them, not heavy enough to be concerning, but the cold still seeped through Haven’s layers.
She might be a figure skater, but even she got cold.
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 7:14 pm
He was still upset about what happened in October. They’d had a perfectly awesome leshen to befriend, and what did everyone do? They decided to attack it and kill it.
Peter lifted his hand to wave over his shoulder at Haven, as though to insist she was making a big deal of nothing.
“If it is a guy in a costume, then why has no one seen who is walking around? Haven’t you read the news articles? No one can seem to get a good picture of whoever it is. No CCTV footage. No dash cam. No video doorbells. Nothing. Just mysterious footprints and a mystery to solve,” he ended with a flourish, determined to keep his optimism when it came to befriending this monster.
“I’m glad you weren’t there in that village, but damn that forest guardian or whatever it was… was beautiful,” he sighed, lifting his flashlight up when he saw something shiny on the ground. Ice?
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 5:49 pm
Haven directed a flat expression at Peter’s back.
She was sure it wasn’t beautiful — not in the normal sense, at least. Everything she’d heard about the “forest guardian” (as Peter liked to call it) made it sound terrifying. Not that Haven was the type to give into fear, but she did at least have a shred of self-preservation.
Their research was important, and their subject matter intriguing, but there were times when she thought Peter might take things a bit too far. Befriending dangerous creatures was… well… dangerous.
“I’m sure there will be plenty more where your leshen friend came from,” she said.
Haven noticed the ice seconds after Peter did, quickening her steps to come up beside him. He was much taller than he used to be. It honestly got pretty annoying having to tilt her head to look up at him when she used to be able to stare down her nose.
Damn Gallo genes.
“I’m not convinced,” she insisted. Large footprints in the snow. Ice. Suspicious sightings. It was all a little too hokey. “It’s either a youma, or someone messing around, trying to get people talking about Big Foot again. If they’re careful, they could avoid most cameras. I heard people’ve only seen it around the woods anyway. Can’t get dashcam footage if you can’t get your car through the trees.”
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 6:42 pm
”Doubtful,” Peter replied mournfully. He didn’t think he would see anything like the leshen again.
But they had something else to look forward to. Whatever this creature was that left frozen footprints had to be close. Should he maybe have a different hobby as a 20-year old? Probably, but this was at least always new and exciting. The danger was where the fun was. Haven clearly didn’t see that.
“Okay, trail-cams then,” he corrected, crouching down on the ground to get a better look at the prints. There was definitely something supernatural about these. Haven’s skepticism rarely brought down his good mood anyway.
“If you were going to make icy footprints in the snow, how would you do it?” he asked, before biting the tip of his gloved finger to pull it off and reach out to lightly touch the ice, testing how thick it was.
“Any water poured in after the footprint would ruin the impression. So the feet had to be pretty hot to melt the snow enough that it reformed as ice,” Peter hypothesized. “So to leave a bunch of tracks, they would have had to remain hot and not get cooled by the snow. Are your shoes cold?” he asked, but knew the answer. There was no way some kind of fake foot or shoe could have made these prints, in his opinion.
"Which means... we're likely dealing with a youma. Or Big Foot."
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 8:02 pm
“Big Foot is a hoax,” Haven insisted. “This thing we’re tailing is a youma, or some other creature that resulted from the war.”
It seemed to her, at least, that not all the monsters they came across were youma — or not youma as they typically thought of them? It was hard to say. But the creature Peter described from the village, while certainly monstrous, did not seem to have been a youma, despite sharing similar features. The creature they were searching for now could be one or the other, or something else entirely.
Maybe it came from the Negaverse. Maybe it came from outer space.
Maybe it was some stupid a*****e in a costume trying to take advatange of the fact that Destiny City was a strange place full of strange people and home to even stranger events.
Although, she had to admit Peter’s hypothesis about the footprints seemed convincing.
“Come on,” she said, directing her flashlight to the right. “There’s more this way. I wonder how deep into the woods this thing went. Any further and we might have to give it up for a lost cause. On that note, does it even make sense for this thing to be a youma if it’s avoiding people? Wouldn’t it need energy?”
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Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 4:57 pm
"You don't know that for sure," Peter playfully argued. How were they to know if Big Foot was real or not if there was no proof one way or another?
"Maybe Big Foot is a youma or some other creature from the war," he pointed out, thinking he was making perfect sense, heading towards the right as Haven directed with a little more spring in his step.
"I'm actually not sure if youma need energy. I think they want energy, but if they've been surviving for so long, they might not actually need it to survive. I haven't come across any solid evidence at least," he said with a frown, feeling as though he should at least know that information by now.
After years of following youma and studying them, Peter was sad to admit he still knew very little about them. They were a great mystery, which meant it was even more important for someone to study them.
"Maybe I should power up to see if there's anything I can sense nearby?" Peter offered. If there was a youma or someone else lurking around, he would be able to tell from the aura. But if this creature was like the one in the village, he might not be able to feel anything.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 4:03 pm
Okay, so Peter had a point. The existence of monsters meant there was a possibility that Big Foot was real, but that didn’t mean a lot of the evidence people had for it wasn’t fraudulent. Haven rolled her eyes anyway; she’d rather not admit that Peter might be right about something unless she had to.
Not out loud, at least.
“Need, want, whatever the case is, this thing should show up around people at some point, shouldn’t it?” she said. “I guess it could be a variant. Considering how many youma there are, there’s bound to be a few abnormal ones.”
Haven continued to make her way through the trees, shining her flashlight here and there, pausing every once in a while to get a closer look at a new footprint. They were all the same shape, the same size, with a coating of ice that seemed to imply they were dealing with something not quite natural. The creature itself must be large. Where was it hiding, then? Some sort of den or burrow? A cave in the mountains, perhaps? If it was a youma, she supposed it could be going back to wherever youma came from.
One thing was for certain, the footprints looked fresh. Some newly fallen snow dusted the top of the ice, but that was it. They must have been left in the last half hour or so.
Haven glanced around to make sure they were well hidden, before turning back to Peter, “Yeah, power up if you want. That’ll help answer one question, at least. Unless this thing moves fast and is already out of range...”
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 6:22 pm
“Variant is likely, if it’s a youma,” Peter nodded in agreement, and then turned to hand Haven his flashlight so it didn’t disappear when he powered up. He also took a moment to glance around and make sure there wasn’t anyone that might be around to see him, and dug into his jacket pocket for his pen.
A few mumbled words and transformation later, Oberon was gritting his teeth and cursing himself as he rubbed at his arms and bounced in place a little.
“Okay, so shorts are a bad idea,” he winced, already feeling the cold biting at him. He was definitely not a senshi with elemental powers. Did senshi with snow magic even get cold?
He shook out his hands and stood still for as long as he could manage, trying to sense anything nearby. When he couldn’t, he quickly powered back down.
“Nothing. It’s either out of range or it’s not a youma. Or it’s a type we can’t feel,” he said with a sigh. It also probably meant they were better off calling it a night and thawing out before maybe making another attempt.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 8:32 pm
Haven was both disappointed and unsurprised that transforming yielded no results. There were too many possibilities and not enough answers, and they were running out of time to figure it out. The longer they were out there, the colder it got; the further into the woods they went, the further away they were from civilization. Haven knew how to take care of herself, and she felt safe with Peter, confident in his ability to navigate their surroundings and survive the elements, but that didn’t meant it wouldn’t be stupid of them to risk it.
“We should go,” Haven said, aiming both of their flashlights at the ground. “There are some prints leading back toward the city. They seem older, though. More snow on top.”
Which meant they wouldn’t find the creature that way.
Sometimes it got frustrating when they didn’t achieve any results. They’d been doing this for years, since they were children. One would think they’d have more answers by now.
“We can try again tomorrow,” she offered. She expected Peter was even more disappointed than she was. He’d want to find the creature before anyone else got their hands on it. “I think the weather’s supposed to be better. We should try when there’s more daylight. It might not be nocturnal.”
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 12:59 pm
Peter let out a long sigh, but knew Haven was right. He would really have liked to at least warn the creature that the city really wasn’t safe to be around. People would likely seek it out to try and hurt it rather than just observe like himself and Haven.
“Yeah, let’s head back,” he conceded, even if he probably had another hour or two in him to keep looking. By the time they got back home it would be well past midnight.
“You’re okay if I crash on your couch, right?” he asked with a grin as he carefully stepped around a fallen tree on their way back towards the city. “It would make no sense to both go home to our own places if we’re going to try this again tomorrow. We can come up with a plan of attack easier this way.”
At least that was Peter’s idea. Whether Haven agreed or not? Well, he would just have to convince her that it made the most sense this way.
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