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When Evil Takes Root (15) : Destiny City is always being expanded and renovated, so controlled forest fires and forest demolition are common enough. And yet, the forests seem bigger. Darker. There’s no logical explanation to it, but logic has nothing to do with it if you pay enough attention. Sometimes, the trees seem to move--more than just how the wind manipulates them. Sometimes, a particularly mangled tree with sharp bark and long, clawlike branches will stand out amongst the others. It isn’t always in the same place, and it isn’t always alone. They can look like normal trees–until they don’t. And by the time you notice, you’re too close to stop them.
In the blink of an eye, they’re upon you. They don’t quite run as much as they do slither, and their branches are always longer than they appear. Especially when they are slashing at you or trying to squeeze you. Some of the trees have strangely human shapes molded into them, covered in dark bark. Hopefully it’s just your imagination but you really shouldn’t try to find out what happens if one of them manages to catch you. Any area with one of these trees will feel unnaturally heavy, and when they have congregated it feels exhausting, as if they are draining the energy right out of the air–and you. They fear only fire and seem to feel pain; if you hack at their branches or peel their bark, they bleed. If in too much danger, they will flee into the trees. Once you lose sight of them, it’s impossible to find them again–unless they want you to.
In the blink of an eye, they’re upon you. They don’t quite run as much as they do slither, and their branches are always longer than they appear. Especially when they are slashing at you or trying to squeeze you. Some of the trees have strangely human shapes molded into them, covered in dark bark. Hopefully it’s just your imagination but you really shouldn’t try to find out what happens if one of them manages to catch you. Any area with one of these trees will feel unnaturally heavy, and when they have congregated it feels exhausting, as if they are draining the energy right out of the air–and you. They fear only fire and seem to feel pain; if you hack at their branches or peel their bark, they bleed. If in too much danger, they will flee into the trees. Once you lose sight of them, it’s impossible to find them again–unless they want you to.
Farbauti didn’t really know how much more he could take with Winston. He’d gotten help from Autumn more than a few times, because she’d graciously let him use her employee discount while buying groceries. Because Winston was not, it seemed, easily satisfied by the same things that Vanya had happily relied on in order to eat: leftover or abandoned meals from after closing time at Nagisa’s, the remnants of incidents like people sending their worst enemies huge orders of sushi instead of innumerable pizzas; a few easy staples like eggs, mac and cheese, and doctored pasta sauce; nothing fancy like Jacob Renault and Ritka Bulgakova-Renault enjoyed because s**t like that cost money that Vanya couldn’t spare.
(And some of it made him sick anymore, but that wasn’t important. He was glad that Taiki didn’t insist on treating him to anything overly pricey, and that they’d largely managed to avoid any Cajun-adjacent fine dining. Vanya hadn’t really gotten close to any Cajun cooking since he’d left Louisiana for Destiny City, and it had taken him by surprise, when eating it had made him feel sick to his stomach. He’d even remembered once liking several of the dishes that had set him off more recently, but trying to eat them now? Nausea. Vanya had been helpless against it. Just nausea all night that threatened to build up into something more but never did, and the nagging sense of memories he didn’t want to deal with gnawing at the insides of his brain like rats.)
He’d taken more shifts at work, but it had yet to really help. If he’d had a car, he would’ve looked into Doordashing or Instacarting for the extra cash, but all Vanya had was his bike. Having heard some horror stories about heavy-a** Instacart orders, he didn’t like the sound of trying to cart them all the way across town on his bike. Odd jobs from the elderly folks in his building helped somewhat, but Vanya felt bad about taking their money, even after doing little tasks for them. He just felt so helpless.
“Helpless” felt like a disgustingly good word for every aspect of his life right now. He couldn’t get Winston to give his bed back. He couldn’t afford a new bed for Winston to replace the one he’d be losing, never mind a mattress to put on said bed. Considering how Vanya’s twin bed didn’t entirely meet Winston’s standards, it felt unlikely that he ever could’ve afforded a bed that Winston would have liked. Even if Vanya had been able to afford it, they didn’t have the space for an entire new bed, especially not if Winston wanted something bigger than they currently had (and if he did, then what was Vanya supposed to do, then? He didn’t have the money to pay for rent on a bigger place and since Winston didn’t work……well, it would have fallen on Vanya to pay for it, wouldn’t it have).
Patrolling as Farbauti didn’t help him feel any better. It never did. He’d heard a great deal about how it could be a struggle out there for Pages (the first-stage Knights one sometimes saw out in town) and Lieutenants (the Negaverse agents like the one who’d tried to drain Vanya when Ash had found him and Awakened him as Farbauti). They didn’t have real weapons, the way that the higher-ranking members of their factions did, and they were fighting for their lives with just little trinkets. It wasn’t supposed to be that way for senshi, though, Farbauti thought? Senshi magic got more powerful as you leveled up, but it wasn’t like senshi who were just starting out didn’t have anything to use. Their magic was just part of their whole deal. But he couldn’t rely on his own magic, and when it did work, he wasn’t exactly fond of what it did.
Why did the universe even need a senshi of rage? Demeter’s magic made perfect sense; agriculture was important. Fang’s magic made sense; the chrysocyon was important to his people and they’d had a close relation to the animals. Murikabushi’s magic made sense; hunger was just a base-level experience of being alive, so of course there would be a senshi who could tap into that kind of power. But rage, though……?
Rage wasn’t necessary. Nobody needed rage in their lives.
So absorbed in his own thoughts, Farbauti didn’t notice that his path through one of the city’s parks had started getting darker. Any light from the nearby streetlamps was blacked out by trees. The moon’s waxing crescent, barely visible tonight to begin with, disappeared entirely behind criss-crossing leaves and branches. He didn’t notice the grim, twisted faces or the human figures that showed up more and more regularly, carved into the trees with craftsmanship that would’ve looked menacing if Farbauti had paid attention. But he didn’t.
He didn’t notice anything until a pair of arm-like branches grabbed him and pulled him close. Instinctively, he tried to wrench his way out of the grip, but Farbauti couldn’t manage. The heavy bark and the weight of these limbs practically laughed at Farbauti struggling with his skinny arms, with the rainbow-colored star charm he’d found earlier providing him no relief.
Noir Songxxbird
