|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu May 19, 2022 4:57 pm
Having grown up in Destiny City, Reiki liked to think that he was fairly skilled at handling assorted weirdness. After all, according to any of his parents’ and grandparents’ colleagues who’d ever visited from out-of-state, something about Destiny City made it……far from what most people apparently tended to consider “normal” (and so much the better, if anyone asked Reiki, but no one had; still, life was too short to waste on being boring). Some buildings in town made odd noises for no apparent reason. Others seemed to come and go as they pleased. Offhand, Reiki could think of about eight different people from his, Junsei, and Erika’s graduating class at Meadowview who’d experienced some mysterious, unexplained coma, and two who’d gotten whole-page tributes in the yearbook after they hadn’t survived.
Yet, for all he’d grown accustomed to the background radiation weirdness of just living in Destiny City, Reiki had to admit: things had felt distinctly stranger than normal, lately. First, there was Toráin, with his jagged star tattoo that mysteriously vanished at the same time as his wild hair and his exquisitely crafted porcupine furry tail-belt. Then, there’d been the encounter last week, with the feisty redhead in the purple skirt, and the unfortunately good-looking blond with the off-putting personality and the very tiny shorts. After that, Greg had turned up to Piano Bar Wednesdays—which admittedly may not have been on the same level as the other two incidents, but had led to a somewhat more interesting outcome.
All of it had, this afternoon, sent Reiki over to DCU. He could’ve gone to a different gym, but so few people were on campus during summer term, and having more space to himself while going hard on a workout meant he could expect better stress-relief.
……It hadn’t entirely worked, because ******** his desire for mental peace, apparently. But at least Reiki felt like he’d accomplished something, by the time he slunk out of the gym in today’s cute little dress: black with a skater skirt and pockets, and a pattern of silver and purple suns, moons, and stars covering the collar, the bottom hem, the tie-up belt, and the cuffs of the gratuitously puffy sleeves. Walking home, he expected, would probably do him good, finish clearing up everything he hadn’t rattled out of his skull already. When in doubt, walk it out……sure, Cherry usually phrased things as “werk it out” instead, but a nice walk always did wonders for Reiki.
Barely a block away from the gym, though, he had to wonder if he needed to just stop letting himself expect things.
Everything seemed well enough as he ducked into a longish alley, a shortcut he’d taken more times before than he cared to count. But as he passed one of the dumpsters, he would’ve sworn that he heard skittering? Like rats’ feet, maybe? Except they sounded too loud for rats, even a large number of rats.… Ugh, he didn’t think there were any restless spirits in this alley, but maybe they just hadn’t decided to introduce themselves and had decided to be dramatic about it when Reiki was not in the mood.
Somewhere above his head, someone laughed like wind through dead leaves. He kept walking, figuring that if any spirits wanted to make friends, then tonight, they could use their big kid words instead of all this showmanship. Not that he didn’t appreciate it, but truly, he was in no mood to humor anybody about anything. All Reiki wanted was to get home, have dinner, feed Cersei, and curl up with his sweetest baby to watch Daenerys and Drogon burn the slave masters of Astapor for the umpteen-dozenth time.
Instead, Reiki stumbled to a halt as something fell to the ground before him.
……Or had it leapt there?
No mistaking the squish of organic matter thumping onto concrete, but the……whatever it was hardly seemed fazed by the impact. Instead, it unfurled, cackling the same windy sound that Reiki had just heard. Everything in Reiki’s mind told him he had to be dreaming, or hallucinating, or concussed, or something. Maybe someone had broken into his locker while he showered off and put something in his water bottle?
Because honestly, what else could explain a massive centipede whose head had been replaced by a tiny-waisted, amply buxomed, distinctly human-looking figure, arms spread open as if demanding that her splendor be appreciated? A wild tangle of violently amethyst curls fell to the middle of her back, and her buggy-half’s mandibles protruded from the top of her head, like a demon’s horns. As she reared back, six midnight-black eyes popped open, each one regarding Reiki in some way that made her grin like the edge of a vorpal blade.
“Oh, wow,” Reiki snarked before he could think better of it, “you really think you’re doing something, don’t you.”
This made her stop laughing, at least. Frowning bemusedly, she tilted her head and clacked her mandible-horns.
“Yeah, yeah, Miss Thing, I get it: you think you’re the true Miss Diva and you want to make sure I know it too. Well, okay, let me take care of that for you.” Taking a deep breath, Reiki shoved his bangs away from his face so she could see exactly how unimpressed he kept his expression. He deadpanned, “You’re perfect, you’re beautiful, you look like Gaila out of Star Trek, you’re a model. Did you polish those legs? I swear, they eat. you. up. every single time you’re in my damn way. It’s like, you could skitter out in a ******** diaper and they’d go ‘Centi-Tina, your smiiiile is beautiful.’”
For a moment, Centi-Tina’s mouth fell open in dead silence, and Reiki thought he’d won. Left her speechless and now, she’d let him go. But one step forward, and she let loose a mighty roar. Her tail swished around, hitting the backs of Reiki’s legs, and knocking his sensible heels out from under him.
As he hit the pavement, Reiki groaned. Well, <********> Thursdays. He could never get the hang of Thursdays.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 19, 2022 11:24 pm
Thursdays were often busy for Lucis, especially during the fall and spring semesters. Summer semesters? Their own beast. But the main two semesters? Kids wanted to do whatever they could to make Friday as short as possible, so that was when all the people asking for extensions and the like tended to crop up. Granted, he didn't have nearly as many papers as the faculty in other departments had, but in exchange he had more gym time as people scrambled to get make up credit for their required activity credits. Thus, Thursdays often had more students joining the further into the semester they were, and sometimes those kids had no idea what they were doing. Thus he often needed to pencil in me time afterwards, making sure to give himself time on whatever seemed to be what he needed, and some days were admittedly worse than others, but typically he would end with a run on the treadmill, zoning out to his music until he'd hit his goal for that session, then cool down and head out to go home. Thus, hair pulled back into a low ponytail, he slunk out in clean workout attire. He couldn't help it, it was what he was comfortable in, thus...best option, really, especially since he was officially done barring some weird emergency. ...and almost as if that had caused trouble, he felt more than heard the youma, but years of training to pay attention to his surroundings, along with more...recent events, left him more aware of what was happening. There wasn't even any hesitation, only a quick moment as he thought of his 'weapon', calling it to him and he was much more dapperly dressed now, but that didn't matter. Not when there was trouble, feet moving quickly and turning down the alley, spotting the youma long before seeing the civilian. Muscles tensed as he sprinted forward, though certainly unable to prevent the fall of the other person -- guy? Guy, legs out from under him and Shoqafa didn't try to pick him up -- there was almost a foot difference in their heights, after all, and...no. That wouldn't work. Instead, he fell into a fighting stance without even thinking about it, placing himself in between the...centipede, and the guy. Vaguely familiar guy, but still a guy and a civilian and likely a student. There was no way he was going to just leave this, even if he...well. "Get out of here," his voice wasn't quite loud, but he knew how to project it, ensuring he was heard even as the youma was...well. Itself. "Leave this to me, get yourself safe, do you understand?" He could try to attack -- he could probably even be successful! -- but he needed, needed to make sure the guy got to safety first. Or at least out of the alley.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 12:08 pm
Somehow, Reiki had always known that his mouth would probably contribute to his death someday. Not that this had ever stopped him from running it rather liberally. Unfortunately, his mouth was also one of the best weapons in his arsenal. But regardless, he’d long harbored the suspicion that someday, sooner or later, he’d say the exact wrong thing to the exact wrong person and would have but a few moments of life left to regret it.
Since that had never happened in high school—none of the jocks who’d ever had their exhortations of “suck my d**k, freak” answered with “okay, hotshot, whip it out, better hope it’s impressive” had managed more than spluttering indignantly—it seemed like Centi-Tina got to win the honors, here. As she reared back again, Reiki couldn’t get himself to move. Frozen in place, he could barely feel his arms and legs, much less make them do anything that would help anybody.
Then—somebody rushed forward. Reiki gasped, and it was like a breath of life slammed back into him. Remembering where his body was, he scrambled to his feet, and oh, he’d probably feel that bruise in the morning. But there was no time to think about that. Not when the mysterious purple-vested someone was telling him to run.
“Are you crazy?” Reiki bit back, his tone more concerned than angry (though, roaring what seemed like agreement, Centi-Tina sounded very much the latter). “Look at the size of that thing! She’ll kill you.”
Especially since the guy only seemed to be holding some……not very large stick? At most, it looked about the same size as a machete, but distinctly lacked the bladed edge.… Though, come to think, Reiki wasn’t in a much better position. His sneakers were easily the heaviest things in his gym bag, and he doubted they’d leave much of an impression with Centi-Tina, even if he flung himself at her in a flying kick like something out of a kung-fu movie.
But—wait! Not that far away, one half of the nearest dumpster had its lid open. Reiki darted over and God, he had never been so grateful for the laziness of entitled s**t-head undergrads. At least, he assumed one of them was responsible for breaking the bottom off a bottle of Everclear, then tossing it in a dumpster instead of a recycling bin. ******** hipsters. Reiki would say some prayer of thanks later, when he wasn’t rushing back to his would-be savior’s side, newly armed with some convenient garbage.
“Reiki Disobedience, by the way,” he said, shifting into his own stance, planting his feet so he could either brace himself for another of Centi-Tina’s swings or jump to dodge her. “And I’m glad to see the Society for Creative Anachronism isn’t totally overrun with white supremacist cowards.”
That seemed like the most logical explanation for this guy’s (admittedly quite fancy) outfit. But they could haggle over that later. Right now, Centi-Tina seemed to realize they were ganging up on her. Hissing venomously, she lowered herself and bull-rushed them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 22, 2022 4:42 pm
Shoqafa groaned, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, swallowing before opening his eyes again. "You're hardly well equipped to fight, yourself," he pointed out, though there was a faint look of approval in his eyes as he saw the man dive in the dumpster, returning with only a broken glass bottle. It wasn't something most would think of as a good weapon, and it wasn't really, but? It was in fact using what they had in their surroundings. His attention moved back to Centi-Tina, sharply shifting his head so his ponytail would once more be behind him, grasp on his stick of cane tight without being too tight, the leaves on the edge rustling a bit as he moved, jumping forward with his 'weapon' as it was, but it certainly seemed that he wasn't going to rely on that bit of cane alone, no. No, while that seemed to be a first strike he was going for, the second was swinging in his fist, giving a bit more of an 'oomph' as he was right in front of the thing, putting his body still between the youma and Reiki. "Now, go on. I have this. I promise you. You risk that bottle breaking and hurting you if you fight with it, go get yourself somewhere safe, alright?" He was not going to let up on that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 25, 2022 10:48 am
The more Reiki listened to this guy go on about wanting him to leave, the less he felt like he understood……basically anything. Not even exclusive to this situation, either. Up might as well have been South and East might as well have been blue because—“You’ve only got that baton. How in Seven Hells do you have this, exactly?”
Unfortunately for Reiki, or at least for his perpetual curiosity, an answer was not in his immediate future. For a brief moment, an instinct in the back of his mind piped up to remind him of what he’d seen that feisty redhead and the angry blond b***h doing, magic……might well have been more real than he’d previously accounted for, at any time in his life. Who knows what tricks he has hidden up that baton?, said that part of Reiki’s mind.
He didn’t have time to consider whether or not that was a fair judgment. Ducking around Ser Purple Rain, Centi-Tina lunged for Reiki, pincers snapping and mouth wide open. He only barely managed to dodge her attack—and good thing too, considering the…sticky-looking purple substance she spat out. No way in the ever-expansive mystical sapience of creation could that s**t be <******** Christ—so much of Reiki burned to stay and fight……but maybe, as he’d done with the blond and the redhead, his presence here was only escalating things.… Making it that much harder for his would-be rescuer to actually fight Centi-Tina back.
Although he hated the idea, Reiki dove in to snatch his gym bag. Centi-Tina moving had, thankfully, cleared the path he’d wanted to travel in the first place, which made his avenue of escape obvious. He looked back just long enough to promise, “Assuming you do squash her? I won’t forget this.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 27, 2022 7:54 pm
"Oh I have more than just this, honey, don't you worry about it." He sounded amused but wasn't letting up, showing that...whatever else, Shoqafa did indeed have more than just weaponry training. Even if he didn't have a real weapon right then. His head turned, keeping track not only of where Centi-Tina was but also Reiki, giving a small nod as the man made his escape, leaving him to focus on the youma -- which was so much easier when that was all he needed to focus on, even while dodging strange, purple goo. Truly, in the end, it was a little...underwhelming, as he got close, so close before -- POW -- all that was left...was goo residue and dust. And a sweaty, out of breath Shoqafa. But at least the civilian was safe, and that was what mattered, yes?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
