The Reservoir (4) : The Destiny City Reservoir opened about two years ago and is an easy escape from the big city. It’s a five minute drive outside of the Eastern side of town and features clear water and sandy beaches--although, the sand here is notorious for squeaking when you step on it. It’s a hot spot for all fun summer activities, but it’s been in the news for mysterious reports of some strange, aquatic monster. Some accounts say they’ve spotted a twenty foot long, snake like creature capable of rearing a long neck high above the water. It’s hard to tell if the videos are doctored, but there are too many rumors to dismiss easily. Something strange might be lurking deep in the water. Or it’s just a hoax to get people out to the Reservoir!
But…Sometimes, people feel like something is grabbing their ankle, even if they are just wading in the shallow end. In the deeper parts of the water, it gets a little more intense: something has been said to grab onto ankles and pull. People have been warned about dangerous pranks, but so far no one has been caught. In the shallow end, anyone unfortunate enough to be targeted may feel themselves being knocked off their feet and tugged into the water; anyone in deep water may feel a firm grip on their ankle, tugging them lower and lower. Somehow, anyone it targets is freed--either by wriggling and fighting, or because someone intervenes and pulls the would-be victim up. No one has drowned in the lake. Yet. It's impossible to see who, or what, is doing this, but it usually gives up after one failed attempt. Usually.
While you may find yourself harassed by the supposed cryptid, or see something visibly odd in the distance, you cannot take any pictures of the creature. Who knows if you’re even being attacked by the cryptid–or just another youma?
Adrian was seldom home anymore. He was almost always out working, or 'working', or harassing his superiors, or getting himself into some kind of adventure. It had become such a defining characteristic for him that he forgot to pay his power bill, they shut off his power, and he hadn't bothered to pay for it to get turned back on.
Today was an exceedingly rare day when he had leisure time, and he wasn't interested in spending it at home in the dark. Instead, Adrian was out in the sun, on the sandiest, squeakiest, fake beach this side of DC. And while he was dressed in nothing but his swim trunks and flip flops, he had no interest in wading his a** out to the fake sea. In his hands were a pair of binoculars, and he wasn't interested in looking at babes.
All babes aside, he heard a rumor that there was some kind of sea monster dwelling in the place. Really, that was most of the reason he showed up. The rest was maybe getting some job hunting done, but he forgot to charge his phone at work, and now it was riding low at 10%.
"C'mon, sea sausage, where you at…" Adrian muttered to himself as he stared through the binoculars. So far, no trouble in paradise.
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 6:28 pm
All the littlest kiddies holed up arms-length n wailing noises that could've been fun or a tragic demise, the tenny-boppers far more daring, and then there was Coady...If he tipped his Ray-Bans up enough to see, yep; there he was, waist deep n splashing around in water that, frankly? Looked contaminated. Breathing n screaming with the rest of his pack of chicken-playing friends. All in all having a good time.
N' Triton didn't typically do 'reservoirs', hated sand-fleas, mosquitos, and third degree burns, just as much as he hated getting up a**-crack of early to steal a good spot n lay out towels, but? There were entire books on 'socializing ones brat', and Triton was now officially a brat wrangler; even if it was the older variety. A half-grown brat or some brand? All of that mattered half as little as those big sea green eyes and a six am wakeup alarm that preceded a thirty minute drive and...A big doofy smile...That stupid smile made it worth it all. Early rising on his day off, stubbed toes, dropped coolers, an argument that ended with the water n creaky docks coming into view across an overgrown concrete fish-tank.
Hot - a thing he'd become after basting in the sun for more than an hour. Too hot, really. Since he felt like he was about to sweat his bodyweight in salt straight into the rocky shore. Seaweed n fish-s**t be damned; he guessed he was going in.
"Coady!" and if he died via monster or some other bull? The paper signs plastered over the 'do not dive, wading depth only' poles were hard to miss, how it seemed like some local myth had grown legs and sprinted straight into being a reoccurring legend. "I'm going in!" if he got a sneer or a fare-well wave within the next ten seconds, he hardly noticed, was too busy hissing as he waded up to his *jewels* -- and doing any actual swimming would take some acclimating.
Maybe he'd just slosh around long enough to not make nasty faces at the bits of squelch peeling up between his toes. That'd be fine too...
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2022 1:11 pm
Damn — he was starting to wonder if the sea monster was shy. Maybe it didn't want Adrian zooming in on its tentacles as he dragged another meatbag underwater. Or maybe it was waiting for the right type of snack to wade in foolishly. Could've been a real picky eater, that sea monster.
Adrian retired the binoculars for a moment. Standing up, he watched the beach for some abandoned umbrellas, and — ah, there's one. Abandoned just a hot second ago, by some dude strolling for the shoreline. He crossed the squeaky beachside a dozen feet, then a dozen more, then took up that bumbershoot for his own use. In another set of sneaky steps, he got it over to his side of the sandy tomb and staked it down next to where he had been laying. He figured the guy wouldn't notice; as he cracked open a fresh bag of prawn chips, he watched the guy go yelling at some kid in the city's biggest pool.
Cool. They could have father-son bullshit time while Adrian looked for sea monsters. With the fresh shade, it cut down on the glare across the lenses, and Adrian could now see forever.
Somewhere underwater, and far beneath Adrian's infinite vision, a creature partway mythologized had slipped toward shore. Its roil of tentacles were both impatient and selective; it waited, sampled the sea, and at last chose Triton's leg to pull down to the sea floor.
shiningamisgirl
Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2022 2:40 pm
He recoiled at the cold as it crept up each limb and warmed, baby-stepped deep, shallow, deep, shallow; up past his hip with a hiss and sigh, only to recoil again at a touch - some slimy squelch that he'd stepped on, wriggled neath his toes, curled up his calf! Triton shifted suddenly to shake what had to be a bit of nasty plant free -- and quite quickly found himself on his a**!
Pulled like an undertow and scrabbling for any sort of purchase--
"Son of ahhh--chk--" his first startled gasp turned into a spastic gargle of fresh water algee and silted lake-swill, his second -- garbled silence, like a duck horking up an ear of corn.
His kicks infantile and weak compared to how the muscular tentacle roiled and flexed along; pocked suckers marching their way up his flesh in an adorably slow procession. Coulda been caterpillar cute! Except for the blaze of serrated pain that accompanied their upward crawl!
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Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2022 4:15 am
Ooh, one went down. The umbrella owner, which meant Adrian would be getting a free umbrella out of it if this dude drowned. Which was no reason to hope for his drowning, of course — Adrian didn't care much about umbrellas or stealing household s**t from people — if the dude was going to drown, Adrian needed him to shout out some details about the monster that was killing him!
Though, the way he suddenly went under, the dude would be shouting lungfuls of water instead. Fine, fine, Adrian could play hero for the sake of knowledge.
He left his binoculars behind (after covering them up with a towel — they were too expensive to sacrifice like Dudefella's umbrella), then ran toward the shoreline. People were already starting to scatter, and that was fine, let 'em get out of the way. Adrian felt for his henshin pen in his swim trunks pocket before he waded in (waist deep only, the sign said, and there he was, disobeying laws and boundaries again).
"Alright, my dude, I'm gonna need you to not be dead," he muttered as he felt around in the water for anything — a hand, a foot, a face. Didn't matter, as long as he could get a hold on it to wrench this boyo back up into the air-breathing part of the world. Worst case, he'd have to pop his henshin to haul the dude up, which meant probably killing him after, but that was a worthy sacrifice if it got him the info he was thirsty for.
shiningamisgirl
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2022 2:52 pm
So this was how he bit it - finally - not a heart attack at the ripe old age of ancient, or some mugging in a darkly ominous alleyway. He didn't get the glory of a battle or the weepy sigh of an averagely tragic event.
No. He got ******** by an oversized piece of calamari. Triton was pissed, livid, aggrieved beyond measure! Not a damn bit of which was easily expressed while his lungs slowly filled with fish-s**t soup, via way of dragging the lakebed at a slow crawl.
Like the monster had a mean streak enough to let him hope for air, nice n slow, while grasping at -- weeds that pulled, rocks that gave, an ankle--
Except the Ankle was more like a Wrist, and that wrist was attached to a nice sturdy hand he could grasp hold of while kicking back and out, trying his damndest to just, (and he'd apologize to his saving grace of a rescuer later for whatever bits of nail he left in his flesh) survive!!
He was sure he could hear Coady, some distance off, some shrill cracked thirteen year olds shriek that made it clear how 'just shy of puberty' he was. That Triton was taking the poor hero down with him, if it meant surviving long enough to take his nephew home after.
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 7:51 pm
Ah ********> wasn't the dignified thought he figured he'd have when he was about to have a brush with death, but it was the first thought to populate his head when he was suddenly dragged under by the dude he was trying to save. Really, it made the whole attempted rescue look like stupidity carefully layered over stupidity, and now he was going to end up in the obits as some ******** blonde who didn't finish lifeguard training before doing it himself, but it was a little late to turn back the clock and undo his instant regrets.
Instead he sank down into the water, where he saw the dude, and he thought he saw something slimy-looking around the dude's ankle, but the water was too murky with kicked up sand to offer more than that.
Well, if he was gonna look at this monster, then he needed it to let go of dudefella. And if dudefella insisted on getting in the way, then dudefella was gonna become a starseed right quick. So, with as much breath as he could choke down and hold when getting dragged under, Adrian fished the pocket of his trunks for his henshin pen and sprung his transformation under several feet of water.
Sketchy? Totally. Was he banking on the water's cloudiness to hide his identity? Yep.
In the water, he couldn't speak clearly, but he hoped his magic didn't give a damn about how coherent he sounded when he tried to murmur skinned into the deep. Maybe it'd take, and the creature would flail around a bit, give them both a good look, then get the ******** out.
shiningamisgirl
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2022 6:15 am
Bubbles.
How Neat.
Watching his few vanishing orbs of air escape upwards, little flashes of life dying unseen in all the murk surrounding him. The more that got kicked up, the less range of visibility he had - not that it mattered much right then. When black on black became, well, a ******** more black.
Where were the tunnels filled with light? Or the sensations full of flying?
Absent, in his case.
And if Triton could’ve sighed, deadpan and kindle dry sarcasm trickling bout inside his head for all the ways nothing about his death would be typical, only dumb. Dumber still if he dragged someone else down with him, a poor soul hellbent on being a hero by the feel of it —-
Except the feel was a lot less ‘saving’ and a lot more ‘scraping’; the rough floor, barnacles, shells, zebra muscles, the schlicking, raking, *pull* of something coming loose — and ******** but if he was truly dead and done for then it was at least not supposed to hurt!
Except it did - as the creature broke its hold, tentacles fraying and scattering into dust under the blast of *Senshi* - a lampray maw that splayed enough to screech youma-brand obscenities, nested within rows and rows of hooked teeth was a terrifying beak, clicking parrotlike and wide in the center of it all.
Hungry.
Pained.
Triton found himself cut loose like bad bait, and kicking for the surface instinctually. Straight up thought blocking whatever hellish image was trying to hunt his a** down. He very much wanted to live! ********, he’d reward the badass hero that’d snared him outta the deeper than a lake shoulda been drink and creepy creatures jaws.
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 6:04 am
What a whole ********' time! In hindsight, Adonis didn't know why he thought the creature was anything other than a youma. He faced a hell of a lot more disappointment than he faced relief with that; the downside to the thing being easily dusted was that it was easily dusted! Here he wanted something more than that, like a whole-a** urban legend unexplained by all the magical bullshit that made its home in Destiny City. He wanted something that wasn't from the Negaverse, the White Moon, or the Dark Mirror. Something that didn't come from those crazy aliens and their heartfelt space operas.
All he got was some ordinary, angry youma. He'd have sighed if he was above water.
As the dust began to spread on the waves, Adonis kicked up toward the surface. He breeched with a few heavy gasps of air, feeling a little out of shape for how heavy he felt with all of his clothes and braids soaked through completely. Felt easily tangled, too, for how a few kicks failed to dislodge one of the braids that curled itself around his calf.
Then there was that dude. He probably thought that whole ordeal was way cooler than Adonis's mystery-solved a** thought it was. The least he could do is fake the excitement that he'd genuinely felt minutes before he encountered the thing.
A brief check confirmed that Broseph hadn't gotten far, and that most of DC's water-goers went back to whatever they were doing. Bunch of bastards didn't even want to check on him. Whatever, they'll get ********' eaten the next time that thing respawns.
"Hey," he called, a little breathless. "Didja see it? It'd be pretty damn lucky, y'know — seeing DC's Nessy and living to tell about it."
shiningamisgirl
Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2022 12:39 pm
The words weren't there at first, Triton drooled water filled with jet-ski runoff, pond scum, and silt while he turned on his side and found air - at a paddled pace got close enough to the beach where his knees could touch gravel; giving him a chance at more of that oh so precious O2 without having to put in all the effort for it.
Looking back at sounds waaaay too upbeat for his waterlogged ears.
The Corrupt Senshi -- No -- ******** that. He was here as a civilian to have a normal a** time, he wasn't going there! So -- The weirdo in a Lady Gaga inspired scuba suit, (cause he was absolutely, totally, caught up on what the youth were listening to. What with slang like Drip, n singers that had names beginning and ending in X's, Hashtags, n the like -- though when the ******** a pound sign became a hashtag?), got a baleful watery look, n even wetter sigh.
Triton spat a few more times to dislodge all that ick; coughed up a wet lung, n gave his breathless savior a wavering thumbs up. "Nessy -- lucky, yeap. My non-existent grandkid'sll tell tales of it one day." half gasped as he scanned the shore line, spotted Coady looking halfway caught between confused and concerned; he waved the kid off -- cooked up a tail of slipping on rock slime n getting caught in one of those deep pitted holes tiny anchors left..something like that.
Then looked back at the blond with the most raised of brows, because really? Was Nessy what they were going with? Had that thing even had a neck? Triton would've leaned more towards whatever Moby snacked on at lunch time than mythical water-bound being of the loch, but? Who was he to argue with the guy that'd saved his whole ******** hide.
"Now, the ******** do I call you so I can thank you for saving me?" and Coady was the only one looking concerned, n the blond braided guy, which, par for the course of humanity being just a little more alert than the average amoeba - or so he supposed. "Do you do dinners n s**t?" cause saying thank you felt flat, all things considered.
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2022 12:39 am
Ooh, this one was juicy. Well, good thing Adonis caught it when he did, or this boyo would be belly up and ready for the sharks. Or crabs — crabs could clean a man out in two weeks flat, leave him as bones to drift on the sea. And maybe some lucky ******** would find a few pieces and scrimshaw him into something fancy.
Nah, who was he kidding. Unimaginative ******** would just call the police.
Wading to shore proved quite a bit harder with all his wet, billowing fuku trying to tow him back down to the sea floor. Had to kick at some of it, flail around a bit, and finally tear off some of the panels to his… kilt to swim toward the beachhead proper. Then he dragged himself out, feeling exactly four times heavier than usual. Whatever the hell he was wearing, it was absorbent as a tampon.
"Whew," he huffed as he wrung out some of his outfit. "Relax, my guy. 'Least you get to live long enough to make the kids who'll make the grandkids." He nodded sagely as he twisted the water out of his hair.
And now he was getting yelled at for dinner? Well damn, he was too cheap to turn down a free meal, even if he wasn't hungry (which was probably never). Food for saving a life was a pretty damn good deal, though not quite good enough to keep him from snuffing out lives for better deals. Oh well, save one one day, kill one the next. Whatever kept the quota rolling in, he supposed.
"Name's Adonis," he offered as he approached, then held out a hand. Maybe it was for shaking, maybe it was to help this poor b*****d up while he drained his lungs of seawater and seal piss. "And I'll take anything that's not dog food."
After a beat, he added, "Don't ask." Ivory eyes narrowed at the man, though only briefly.
"So, fair's fair. Who's buying me dinner?"
shiningamisgirl
Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2022 11:08 pm
Funny and fair, Triton shouldn’t have been snorting, or laughing, it all tasted like half the lake’d been funneled up his nose, and he was in dire need of washing that taste out with a netty pot full of alcohol. Either he’d have clear sinuses or be a better kind of dead than snack to a lake monster that looked at him and saw ‘sushi’,
“Triton Cless,” taking the offered hand and using it to haul himself up as best he could just then, only a little shaky where he felt the twinge of tentacles that’d caught and raked thin lines and circle saw suction hickeys along the back of his calf, he hoped ice n basic aid would fix that bullshit up, “if you wanna go change out of your….unique swimwear?”
The words offered, because like hell he was gonna ask after the guy in the skin suits eating habits. Just, ******** no, not with a non sequitur like that.
“Me n the kid — Coady, we’ll be right over —“ Wait — the heck was his umbrella? We’re their towels gone too? The hell… “Near enough to the car-line there, s’a big red hatchback. Older model Ford with a racing stripe, can’t miss it.”
Pressed a pair of digits between his lips and whistled shrill for the Kids attention, caught a flash of green n brown, tilted head, and Triton gave a sharp nod in the desired direction. Every line of his face indicating there’d be no arguing, that he wasn’t staying on the rocky shore a single second longer than was necessary.
“Think real hard on what you want — m'almost tempted to take some vengeance on ‘Nessie’s’ possible offspring, but if you hate fish? Italians never done me wrong.” nearly becoming squid chow hadn’t killed his appetite for some fried calamari shaped revenge.
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2022 9:23 am
Well, s**t. That was a whole thing. His Super upgrade hadn't exactly come with a shirt, and he could take off the creepy skin belts easily enough, but that did nothing for his nasty-looking sarong that wouldn't come off without stripping his henshin, too. Anywhere he went, he was bound to look like a cosplayer without recourse, for as long as he was Adonis. Which made this into a major trust problem.
The turning gears hadn't affected his smile. He knew he could throw caution to the wind and drop henshin — he knew what this dude looked like, anyway, and from that whistle and a kid's attention, the dude couldn't afford to pull some cocky hero bullshit later anyway — or he could walk away from a free meal and spare any doubt about exposing his identity.
But, come to think of it… If his identity got compromised, then they'd have to give him a different one. A different identity might mean a different job without having to go through all the time and effort to find one. And if he had a different job? He might actually start paying his electricity bill. Sure, there was that whole risk of death thing that came with compromising his own identity, but he'd already talked up the potential benefits to himself. He could take a few risks for that.
Yeah, he decided. He really could.
"Alright, revenge dinner it is. Meet'cha at the car." He waved frivolously one moment, then disappeared the next. Wouldn't be a far walk back to the parking lot from where he'd teleported to, and he had enough secrecy inside the port-a-potty to drop his henshin and step out as one incredibly normal-looking Adrian Frost.
Okay, not that normal-looking since he was wearing a turtleneck tank top and jeans that could make a grunge band look clean, but that was still more normal-looking than Adonis.
shiningamisgirl
Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2022 8:17 pm
"Car, Coady -- n'don ask--" exasperation woven into every syllable, he swore to all Hell, he loved the kid, he really really did, but if his nephew under-his-breath'ed one more dauntless thousandth question that Triton just, really, couldn't ******** answer without being overly revealing about things he might not ever be ready to reveal ---
"Hot-Topic isn't a real place n' can't hurt you, I wasn't saved by a walking bit of sea-jerky, and the fact yer' rollin yer eyes at the idea I 'ken have a friend to take out? S'just a betrayal. M'offering you free seafood dinner n this is what I get? Attitude?" Triton was happy to go on, to get louder, even as he threw the straggling single towel he'd salvaged into a sandy hatch n hauled it closed; leaving him locked in a staredown with a boy who wouldn'tve known good sea food if it bit him ---
Thankful as ******** that it hadn't bitten the boy ata ll.
Coady pegged him with a look that lay somewhere in the wastelands of 'please shut up, god's your old, and can we leave you're embarrassing me'; which had Triton grinning to the sound of a slammed backseat door; left to revel in blessed silence just long enough to pull on something like a normal gray t'shirt and track pants that'd loosely roll over swimmers -- the place they'd be going wasn't upscale enough for him to care about how well he'd dry along the way...
Though it still wasn't schlubby enough that he could stop himself from peeling seaweed outta ruddy lengths what ended up being into a messy wind of pony-tail.
Did it need cut? Sure. Did he care?
Not nearly as much as he did about the random a** blond ready for sweater weather mid summer --- or maybe he was the type who got a cold neck n nothing at all else? He couldn't parse if he would've known the guy, couldn't quite reconcile the Senshi with the bottom floor of a parking garage style the guy had going on...
"So, you are? Nevermind --- get in -- yanno -- you'd think a dip in the drink would've done either of us the service of getting us cleaner then we came, n yet?" ******** n middle fingers to the wind, either he was taking out a serial killer gone hitch hiking, or the guy who he owed his life. The details were middling and easily eschewed for the sake of getting gone. Triton did the courtesy of at least shoving open the passenger side door once he'd slid into the front and revved his baby up.
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Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2022 5:27 pm
Looks like the dude he just bailed outta fish food hell had a mouth on him. It was worth a chuckle, the way he backsassed the kid, and he had to wonder if they were related. Coulda been an uncle and their nephew, coulda been a closer relation like father and son. Adrian didn't know and it wasn't his business, so he simply climbed into the car with a steady grin on his face.
All this normalcy made the events that put them together seem like a dream. As he looked back out at the reservoir, the commotion now died down, it was as if that little drowning incident never happened at all. They were taking the memory of it home with them, burying it there, and moving on without it. Leaving the rest of DC to keep doing what it was doing. Maybe that meant he never really left his first job behind, only converted into cleaning up memories instead.
With the kid giving Triton the silent treatment, Adrian leaned over to poke at the radio. "Name's Adrian," he gave as he worked, and following that was some autotuned mess that was released some years back. Something about being unable to feel their face, or something. Adrian only recognized it from when he worked with the crew and the boss's son got to pick the radio stations.
"Gotta say, never thought to assume that swimming in a toilet would make me any cleaner," he teased. "Gotta figure the Reservoire's one big toilet, especially to little kids. They just, let it go wherever, n' expect everyone else to take care of it." Hell, maybe that was what attracted that tentacled b*****d into the lake.
"Anyway, you could turn that into a style, yanno? Swamp Thing remixed. Oh, maybe it's kinda like that… ********, whatsitcalled." He slapped the plastic arm rest portion of the car door while he tried to recall it. "Hobo chic or something?
"Hey, Coady right?" He tossed over his shoulder at the kid. "Whaddaya think? He gonna start a new trend by looking like he rolled in the sea weeds?"
