Prompt 12 (Cold Blooded): Pearly white snow is a common sight in Destiny City, so seeing, ivory lumps around the city really isn’t so strange. Until they move. The ones the size of an iguana, or the mountains of small, gecko-like lizards that travel together, probably aren’t that intimidating. The ones the size of a komodo dragon? Those are scary.
Though they range in size, they have a few things in common: sharp nails that let them climb up nearly any surface, sharp teeth that feel like being gnawed on by icicles, and scales so cold that it feels like being freezer-burned. All lizards seem to like sleeping in the snow, but the larger they are, the more solitary they travel. It isn’t uncommon to see one very large lizard, a handful of iguana-sized lizards, or two or three dozen (or more!) smaller lizards in a single grouping.
They seem to mind their own business unless they are hungry, or if you get too close. It’s just, it’s hard to avoid them when they look just like snow--or when they fall out of trees on top of you? These lizards love the snow, and they love chewing on people, too. Whether it’s out of hunger or agitation, if you make the mistake of getting too close to one, they will attack–even if unprovoked. They’re fast. They’re vicious. They have a strange habit of disappearing mid battle with a camouflage you just cannot detect.
It’s impossible to kill or capture one, and strangely enough there doesn’t seem to be any reports of these lizards anywhere. They seem like ordinary lizards, just very cold blooded. They don’t have an aura or seem to be magical, but something just isn’t adding up here, anyway.
Note: The lizard is not a youma but can be used as a battle requirement for a character. It can only be used as a battle if there are two powered characters involved; you cannot write a solo and count this as a battle, and your character must be powered to meet battle requirements. You can use the prompt for as many characters as you like and it will count as a battle requirement, however if you repeat the prompt with the same character, only the first time will be usable as a battle.
Patrolling on the way home from an errand was, in Kaifeng’s experience, often a good way to find oneself in Some Shenanigans. In the event of such, explaining said Shenanigans to Huanxi and/or Dewey when he got home would generally make him feel a little bit guilty for having gotten into them alone. Always, it was better to have one of them with him, so nobody had to be alone when trouble arose.
However, it only made sense, patrolling on the way home from an errand. In tonight’s case, Liánlí had run out as a favor for one of the neighbors who was always kind to him, Dewey, and Huanxi. She’d gotten a strange package that wasn’t hers but had wound up on her front porch anyway. Between mobility issues and the cold weather, she couldn’t get it down to the post office herself, but Liánlí didn’t struggle with that. Powering up in an alley after dropping the package off just came so naturally to him, and it gave him a much easier time of hopping across rooftops and darting through the fine City parks, with his little wispy friend in tow……
……and the sense of a Dark Mirror aura. Not powerful enough to be Murikabushi or Lete—who had also recently gotten the super-senshi glow-up—which made Kaifeng even more inclined to follow it. Most Dark Mirror senshi, he figured, were probably not planning to leave the Court soon like Muri, but they also likely weren’t as obnoxious as Lete. They weren’t necessarily up to any mischief, and making sure they didn’t need help felt like one of Kaifeng’s duties to his adoptive hometown, as one of the magical Knights in its boundaries. Yes, he primarily served Kaifeng, but the people in Destiny City needed protection, too. Regardless of which magical faction they belonged to, they were all still people.
The Dark Mirror senshi he spotted—a bespectacled girl with short, fluffy-looking pink hair—seemed, from this distance, like she was doing fine……until Kaifeng noticed a big, yellow, and distinctly reptilian eye eye cracking open in what had seemed like a normal pile of snow behind her. As the alleged snow-pile roused and ostensibly worked a crick out in its haunches, he could practically hear it groaning in the way he did himself when waking up from an unintended nap. With a deep breath, Kaifeng readied his weapon and took off running toward the Dark Mirror girl and………whatever that thing was.
genovianprince
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2024 1:16 pm
Bélénos enjoyed setting the mirrorwraiths out to steal little bits of energy from the folk that wouldn't miss it. She tried not to target the drunk or homeless, even if they were less likely to notice it in the first place, mostly because... They probably needed every bit they could have. Just to survive in this rotten city. But groups of college students, talking and laughing? Perfect. Their merriment wouldn't dim all that much, as long as she was careful and only took from a couple at a time, and if she overdid it, they would just end their party night early, which was fine by her. It worked out.
Tonight, prey was scarce. Which was super disappointing! She wanted to do a good job!! And the snow was so overwhelming now, and she just... did not feel good tonight! And then, on top of it all, the Squire aura she could feel at the edge of her senses starting making a beeline for her, and she squeaked, coming to a solid stop and bracing herself for whatever was coming.
Fortunately for the pink-haired Mirror-girl, Kaifeng did have certain violence in mind—but not against the Mirror-girl herself. Any Mirrorwraiths she’d sent out, he hadn’t seen while traversing the park, and anyone they’d drained had, in the tumult of everything after the winter holidays, seemed like a fairly normal amount of exhaustion related to winter holidays being busy, and stressful, and full of people. As he got closer to the Mirror-girl, he called out, “Behind you, meimei!”
Not a moment too soon, either. Almost as soon as Kaifeng had called out to her, the pearly white lizard gave a low, rumbling roar that almost sounded like thunder. Snapping its jaws at the thin air before it, the beast gave a whole-body shake to loosen itself up. As it turned to more fully face the poor Mirror-girl, one of the only saving graces seemed to be that its size made it slower than usual. It lumbered through its movements, rather than whipping around with speed, and even when it got its tail positioned behind it and its snout pointed forward, it needed a moment to adjust before it could menacingly snap its jaws again.
That moment gave Kaifeng enough time and room to dive in front of the Mirror-girl, getting between her and the lizard. “Sorry for this, meimei,” he said, focusing on his Wonder, and his magic, and his duties as he swung his bat toward the lizard. “They’re spooky, but I promise, the ghosts don’t hurt.”
Instantly, the familiar, spectral shades appeared, clawing up out of the ground around Kaifeng, the Mirror-girl, and most importantly, the offending snow-lizard.
genovianprince
Kāifēng swings his club like a baseball bat. When the swing is complete, ghostly shades claw their way out of the ground within a six-foot radius of Kāifēng. Anyone within the six-foot radius—including allies and Kāifēng himself—will feel a sense of recognition, like they should know who these dead people are, but the shades appear too mangled by death and decay to be recognizable as any particular person. The shades will attack anyone in the six-foot radius but Kāifēng, including allies, but being incorporeal, they do no physical damage. For the duration of his channeling, anyone hit by one of his shades will feel deathly chills and a heavy feeling of being watched. The chills stop as soon as he stops channeling; any lingering emotional effects (from the magic or seeing the shades) are up to individual players!
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2024 2:26 pm
Bélénos couldn't help a short scream when she finally noticed the large pile of yellow snow had not come from the body of another animal—in fact, it was the actual body of an animal that seemed extremely angry with her very presence. She skittered backwards, nearly stomping on Kaifeng as he got around her to—damn, he was trying to protect her.
How sweet. Maybe she was a little bit okay with the White Moon types, after all.
"Oookay," she said a bit shakily, taking a deep breath. Still, the visions of the ghosts spooked her, chilling her damn near to the bone. Normally, she was okay with this sort of thing, but the magic... It must have been in the magic, she realized.
Especially with the nagging feeling she should have known some of them. She stared, but she couldn't recognize any of them, not with the decay they had. And then, one of them took a swing at her, and she couldn't help but kick back, even as they definitely didn't touch each other.
Absolutely ******** this, actually, never mind, these White Moon types were super bad and especially whatever the ******** this guy was.
Guilt twisted in Kaifeng’s throat at the poor girl’s scream. He couldn’t allow it to break his focus, not until he’d made sure they were safe, but—man, he couldn’t blame her for that, either. As much as he liked the ghostly shades his magic summoned and thought they were perfectly lovely in their own unique way, Kaifeng did realize, on some level, that most people didn’t tend to agree……that the dead souls of Kaifeng the Wonder, summoned here to help protect people as much as Kaifeng the Squire could manage, understandably freaked people out.
Fortunately, they also seemed to freak out the lizard. For a moment, its jaw-snapping grew more frantic, like the snow-lizard equivalent of screaming in the middle of a panic. While the lizard’s movements remained slow and lumbering due to its size, it nevertheless made the quickest retreat that it could manage, scurrying away like it meant to run crying to its mother.
With a soft sigh, Kaifeng stopped focusing and banished his ghostly shades. “I’m sorry for that again, meimei,” he said gently, his voice soft and earnest. “Among other things, Saturn is the planet of death, and the Wonder that gives me my power is a graveyard. I know my magic can be frightening, especially with so little warning. But……are you okay? That lizard didn’t get you with its jaws or anything, did it?”
genovianprince
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2024 2:53 pm
Bélénos swallowed against the fear that crept into her body, watching carefully as the ghosts also attacked the lizard. Normally, she was totally into reptiles, loved snakes, that sort of thing, didn't have any issues with them in the same way a lot of girls did, but... That thing? That thing could go to hell for all she cared. She couldn't stop herself from wrinkling her nose at it, blowing a raspberry as the ghosts beat it back and it ran away as quickly as its big fat body could.
Good. Screw that thing.
The ghosts vanished and Bélénos relaxed instantly, sneezing into her elbow. "It's your magic, you have about as much control over that as I do," she said with a shrug. "I'm fine, yeah. It didn't bite me."
She looked him over, curious as to why he'd helped her. The White Moon seemed a bit of a mixed bag in reactions to the Dark Mirror, anyway.
Turning to face her more properly, Kaifeng considered what the Mirror-girl was saying and nodded. “Well, I’m glad that it didn’t hurt you. Getting hurt out here by yourself would’ve been awful. Especially since……I know there aren’t as many of your fellow Mirror senshi as there are of my White Moon comrades and the Negaverse. And if the wrong one of them had found you, they maybe wouldn’t have wanted to help.”
Kaifeng realized, however dimly, that his primary reference point for the Dark Mirror Court was not a very helpful one. Murikabushi had, by his own admission, been planning to leave them in the near future, and hadn’t felt like he’d fit in with the Court very well overall. Thus, his behaviors were not necessarily indicative how any other Mirror senshi would behave, or how they would act around people. Still, this girl hadn’t done anything nefarious, that Kaifeng had seen, and treating her like a criminal with no evidence seemed both unfair and unhelpful.
As he reached into his subspace, Kaifeng wished that he’d had some snackier snacks in there, but the ones he pulled out were a bag of baby carrots. “Sorry I don’t have something sweeter to offer,” he said, proffering the carrots with a bashful smile. “D’you think you’ll be okay? Or have a friend you can call on your—Mirror senshi use compacts to talk to each other, right? I can hang out for a little while if you want.”
genovianprince
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2024 3:55 pm
Bélénos listened to him and nodded, grateful for his help—he really did seem like a good egg, then. That was fine. She liked him, then, didn't have to worry so much about being randomly attacked if she happened to be near this particular dude.
"Well, thank you," she said gratefully, gasping a bit at the baby carrots and grabbing them. "Really thank you! I love these. And, um—Yeah. Yeah, I've got someone I can call. Thanks. If I stay in one spot, I don't think I have to worry about another lizard."
She smiled, ripping the bag open and popping a carrot in her mouth happily. "But thanks for the offer. You're pretty alright."
