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 Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 3:43 pm
"Hey Fi!" Breanna shouted from the bottom of the staircase. "I'm heading out.""Alright, when are you planning on coming back?" Fiona peeked her head around the corner, her blue hair tied up in a ponytail as she set her laundry basket on the landing. "Honestly, I don't know, I'll send you a text once I know what the plan is." There was a chance they might swing by Indra's place after they visited the Caves depending on timing. Or if things are that boring they could maybe spend a few hours on his Wonder if he was up for the trip. "Ok, I'll just plan to have dinner without you then." As of late, Fiona was getting use to eating alone. It didn't bother her in the slightest though since it often meant less cleanup. Bri picked up her belongings, a small purse that fit her phone, wallet, and henshin pen, as well as a small duffel with a spare change of clothes and bathing suit just in case things at the cave warranted a change in attire. She then turned towards the front door and as she turned the knob, she was met with a surprising amount of resistance. "Indra," her tone was playful as she called out to what she thought was him. "If you're out there, you can let go of the door." Again she tugged the door and once more it did not move so she peered through the eye hole and saw nobody standing there. "What's wrong?" Fiona glanced out the frosted glass window and saw nothing but a few ivy vines webbed across their entryway. "Strange." The door was definitely unlocked but something was keeping it firmly shut. "I'll go try the garage, you go try the back door." "What? Why?" Breanna asked brows furrowed in utter confusion. "I think someone used too much fertilizer on the lawn. It looks like some of the plants have grown out of control."Quote: Old prompt from previous event
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 3:45 pm
They’d made plans. Not something Indra had ever typically done with other people, as he really was mostly a homebody. It was often stressful and particularly exerting to instigate social functions. And then after his initial awakening, he’d somehow managed to do so even less. It was too dangerous to be out and about when he didn’t know- and couldn’t control- what might happen with enemy youma…
But today they’d made plans, and Indra found that he didn’t mind having such arrangements with Breanna. She had always been very supportive, very helpful, eager to do whatever he might suggest (the trips to his wonder, the vacation to his rental the year prior, she’d come when he asked for help with the Blight in the abandoned underground…), and he found that very easy to acclimate to.
And it helped that he could sense the monsters as Indra now, without powering up and broadcasting his own aura.
He was still wary of seeming too reliant on her, but he imagined Breanna didn’t mind, or she surely wouldn’t have invited him to pick her up at her home.
His car pulled into her driveway, and Indra’s dark slate gaze slid assessingly over the front of the property. As someone who lived practically in the woods now, he could hardly judge someone for keeping dense foliage on their own land, but he had to admit that this seemed… excessive. Off. A bushy green lawn, straggling grasses that looped up and blocked the doorway, vines creeping across the driveway.
He paused before he got out of the car, pulled out his phone, and sent a text:
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 3:58 pm
Her phone dinged while Breana was in the dining room, eyes narrowed in great annoyance, glaring menacingly at the ivy that had creeped up the exterior of their home and wound itself around the handle, holding it closed with a vice-like grip. She let out an exasperated sigh as she dug through her purse to read his message. If it wasn't that she knew Indra well enough to confidently believe that he wasn't one to pull a practical joke, at least not one of this extreme, Breana would have responded with a snipping text back. Instead she opted to call him. "Hey, sorry." her voice was full of remorse for not being outside waiting when he arrived. "I have all my things but I can't get out of my house." A faint voice in the distance called out from the garage. "The motor isn't even strong enough to lift the door." A door shut loudly as Fiona re-entered their home "It looks like you might need to crawl out a window." Only when she turned the corner did she realize her sister was on the phone. "Is that Indra."Breana nodded but by her expression, it was evidence enough that this predicament was not his doing. "Can you ask if he's willing to help pull the vines off the house?" They had no tools to give to him unless they got the garage door open first.
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:00 pm
She couldn’t get out of her house?
Indra stared blankly ahead as he held his phone to his ear. Well… Yes, he supposed judging by what he could see, maybe it wasn’t too hard to expect that the tangle of green had trapped her. Impulsively, warily his focus shifted to what he thought he might be able to feel in the area around him. There surely existed a youma who had a power to create such growth…
But he felt nothing out of the ordinary. That wasn’t an indication of safety, but whether it was or not, it wasn’t like he could abandon Breanna in her house.
“Should I go and find a… hatchet or something? All I have in my car is a basic tool bag.”
But maybe that was excessive. Gloves would probably be enough to rip some vines off the door. …Not that he had those, either. Irrelevant. Indra slid out of his car, still carrying his phone against his ear, and walked up the grass-overrun path from the driveway to the door.
“Has it been like this for very long?” He asked into the receiver. “Or has it happened before? Are these… These are ‘normal’ Earth plants, yes? And not homeworld plants, I hope…” He hasn’t been to either of the girls’ planets, though Indra was given to believe Breanna had never been to hers, either. And Fiona’s was frozen and icy. It would be strange to find this type of greenery there, probably?
But they were behaving so oddly! Hardly ‘normal.’
Indra was hesitant when he reached for the vines, but they didn’t seem immediately to resemble any poison ivy or poison oak. He still would’ve preferred gloves, but since he didn’t have them, he’d just have to get over it. He picked through the tangle to start trying to remove them from the door enough to get it open.
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:01 pm
"No, not to my knowledge anyway. It wasn't there when I got home yesterday. I didn't even know we had Ivy in our yard until just now." She eyed the unfamiliar white flowers warily. Pretty, but she couldn't help but wonder, given their size, if they were more like Venus fly traps waiting to snap onto her finger if she tried to pick one. "You don't happen to have a pocket knife or something to try cutting the vine do you? If not I can pass one to you through the window." it was more a box cutter than a pocket knife but the blade was still pretty sharp.
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:02 pm
It was so sketchy, and Indra had entirely too little trust in the state of things to expect it was harmless. But once the ladies were free, they could go elsewhere away from the plants and more properly judge what needed to be done to be rid of them.
He tucked his chin to hold his phone between his shoulder and cheek, so that he could have both hands free. There was so little separating them, just the width of a door, but the phone was still simpler for now, he figured.
“Alright, sit tight. I brought nothing that would be of much use in this situation-“ Since how could he have expected to be in this situation? “But they are ripping away easily enough… If you have a large kitchen knife that you are not opposed to introducing to strange foliage, that might be useful if it becomes very difficult.”
Some of the vines did look quite thick, some of the flowers sprouting with those… dangerous sort of toxin-looking colors. Indra avoided touching what he could and focused only on ridding the doorway of what needed to go to allow the girls out of the house.
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:16 pm
"Yeah, give me a minute. I'll grab a steak knife from the kitchen and meet you by the living room window to your right." It was the nearest one to him that actually opened since the one alongside the door was just for decoration. "I'll need your help popping off the screen." Breana shuffled her feet into the kitchen where she grabbed one of her sisters Cutco knives from the wooden block. These things were sharp as hell and durable to boot. Best of all though was if they got damaged they could be sent in to be repaired or replaced, no questions asked. "Ok, don't mind the garden bed there's nothing planted there yet." She set the phone down and unlatched the window from the inside, raised it up and locked it into place. "Hey," her features and voice softened at actually seeing Indra. "I know this wasn't the plan for today, but thank you for helping us out. I really appreciate it."
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:18 pm
So the day wasn’t really going as planned, but it sounded like no one was hurt. He should be thankful for that, since it did feel like it might have been a more sinister situation than what they were actually dealing with. In fact, Breanna seemed as surprised as he did. It must be a relatively new discovery for her, as well, and if all that came of it was a small delay, then…?
But he didn’t want to bank on that. Better to be wary.
Indra abandoned the doorway as requested, and headed to meet the girl at the designated window. It, too, was covered in a leafy, viney display, and Indra had to push his way through the foliage to make it to a point where he could actually see Breanna through her window.
He wondered if what he was hearing in her voice was relief, like maybe she had been a little more concerned than he’d initially given credit for.
“Hey,” he parroted quietly in response, fingers reaching lightly to graze the bottom edge of the window screen as he readied for her instructions on how to remove it. “Not the plan,” Indra agreed. “But how else would I spend my time if I decided to leave you here?”
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:19 pm
“I don’t know,” Breana rolled her shoulders in a small shrug. “Probably go to the reservoir anyway and see if you could find someone more interesting than me to spend time with. Not that I think you’d succeed but I’m sure you’d give it a valiant effort.” she teased with a playful wink. “More realistically though, you’d probably be at home enjoying a quiet day with your sugar gliders.” They were super cute and she knew how much he adored the two of them. “Rest and relaxation before heading back to work on Monday.”With deft fingers, she pinched the two plastic tabs and pulled the window screen back into place but left the window open so they could continue talking as he cut away at the vines to free them.
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:20 pm
He scoffed, a soft little rush of air as he twitched his head to the side, the vaguest trace of a smirk on his lips. "Sounds just like me." Yes, Indra could definitely see himself going out alone and looking for any random passerby that he knew nothing about and wasn't interested in to have a basic, shallow socialization with. Sounded incredibly exciting and engaging. "I think it is probably best if I go ahead and get you out, just in case I am unlucky with finding an interesting stranger that wouldn't mind being sporadically approached by an unknown man at the beach."
With Breana's large kitchen knife, the worst of the vines didn't stand a chance. There was still an intricate weave of thornwork tangling around the ledges, but Indra dutifully cleared as much away as seemed to be in the direct path of getting the woman out.
...But getting her out wasn't really the entirety of the problem. He shifted backwards to survey the damage in full. "What are you planning to do about this?" Even if they went out for the day, Fiona was still inside, and the problem may reinvigorate itself in their absence. "Should we call someone? And wait and make sure this is taken care of. Some of these plants look... unsafe, as if we should consider not leaving your sister with them. Maybe she should come along with us? I would hate for you to not be able to enjoy the day, thinking about her being alone here."
Regardless, Breana still had to escape. He offered her a hand to help her jump through the window, staring hard at the thorns and unnaturally spiny plants as if to warn her that she still had to be careful, despite what had been cut away.
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:21 pm
“Honestly, I was thinking of just powering up for a few moments and using my magic on it. It’s just heat, not fire, so my home shouldn’t go up in flames.” It was just a theory, however. Breana took a moment to put the half-inch dowel under the window to keep it from suddenly guillotining her when she crawled under it. When she looked up and saw his offered hand, Bri paused a moment. “I don’t know how I got so lucky as to find a gentleman such as yourself.” She commented with a genuinely endearing smile before accepting his kind gesture. The window from the outside was quite a bit higher from the ground than when she was inside the house just due to the crawlspace height. In a way, it felt like she was playing a live-action version of the kid game operation. Trying not to knock her head or elbow on the metal frame or accidentally knock the dowel out of the track while turning around so she sat on the window sill facing the house. “Help please,” Breana twisted her torso so she could put an arm around his shoulder.
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:22 pm
Indra’s brows furrowed. His head canted. The corner of his lip quirked. It looked like he couldn’t quite tell if he was amused or unnerved. “I think I would be a bit anxious,” he admitted. “Thinking of you powered up so close to where you sleep, even for a minute. And potentially burning down your home.” The hack-and-slash way was a bit more time consuming and labor intensive, but Indra hoped it was at least safer. The sun was ‘just heat’ too. Didn’t mean it didn’t set fires when the conditions were right.
But they could negotiate solutions once they were on the same side of the fence, and Breana could observe the damage from afar, rather than from behind the window.
She carefully crawled her way through the opening, while Indra had one hand on her arm to help steady her and the other with his palm braced against the underside of the raised windowpane. He didn’t know how ‘gentlemanly’ it was. Indra felt certain this was the bare minimum required for just basic decency.
Although, maybe it wasn’t quite ‘decency’ that drew him to stand close at her side, slipping an arm under her legs as she twisted to hold onto him so that he could slide her out of the house and avoid the worst of the foliage tangle as he did.
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Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2024 1:00 pm
“Alright, I’ve finished checking the main level of the house, and it seems the only other window that can open is the one in the dining room above the hutch.” This made sense because it was the furthest room from the overgrowth, based on the observation that the branches and vines thinned out as they extended from right to left or from the ground to the eaves. She didn’t bother going upstairs since there wasn’t a safe way down without trying to pass a ladder to Indra. “Here are the gardening sheers from the garage.” Fiona passed her sister what looked to be a large pair of scissors. “If I could ask you two to clear the vines off the front door, I can take care of the rest.” The two of them had plans and she didn’t want this to delay them further. “Yeah, we’ll see what we can do.” Though her previous plan of powering up for a brief moment and just burning them off the house was still a valid option if these pruning sheers didn’t work. “Times like this I wish we had some electric tools.” Like one of those hedgers, but they didn’t have any of those kinds of bushes to justify the expense. She turned her turned toward Indra, glancing up with an almost innocent expression. “Think I could ask for your help with some of the thicker vines?” With effort she could probably get them off eventually but it was not beneath her to acknowledge that some assistance might be necessary.
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Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2024 2:56 pm
They had plans... And it wasn't as if Indra and Breana spent an egregious amount of time together, so adhering to the literally one outting they'd arranged together should be no great strife, but... "I think... we should probably stay," he rumbled out quietly, accepting the shears from Breana as she batted her lashes at him in entreaty for his assistance. "Or rather, it is more accurate to say that I think it unwise to leave your sister alone to deal with this."
They hadn't known about the vines slowly encasing their home ten minutes ago when Indra drove up. Even if it was being handled now and nothing was inciting violence among them, yet, leaving Fiona alone in a house slowly being engulfed didn't seem safe.
Yes, the Senshi could retreat to her world if something happened, but better to not leave it to chance.
Not that either of the girls seemed worried at all. Fiona sounded perfectly confident (odd). Breana was fine to take the worst of the vines out and move on with their day. But Indra's experiences over the past few years with the nonsense that went on in this city had tinged most of his actions with a certain paranoia caution that hadn't been present before he'd become Antisana. He could be overreacting... No one was hurt, he couldn't feel any auras, the creeping tendrils were being sheared away and putting up no resistance. He snapped the long gardening tools through the vines over the door with no struggle at all.
Maybe he should allow Eleonora burn them away...
"Would you be very offended if we had to postpone our date? There will be other opportunities for the beach." But this issue was happening now, and Indra was extremely aware the state Breana would be in if Fiona wound up hurt because of this.
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