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 Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 3:46 pm
Quote: The Creature in the Well (9) : While Destiny City has a modern water system, it’s not uncommon to see decorative wells around the city. Often in parks or around gardens, they grant a peaceful, countryside flair to the otherwise busy metropolis. Most days, they blend into the background. Not today. Maybe you heard a powerful, fierce splash, like something smacking violently against the water, or maybe it was the unnerving croak that echoed from deep below, but something has clearly gotten trapped in the well. Sometimes, there’s the distinct sound of something clawing, scratching, climbing–desperate to get out. The noise its making is deep enough to vibrate through the ground. If you go to investigate, you’ll see nothing but a pair of golden, snakelike eyes staring back up at you. Whatever it is, its body is completely submerged under the water, but just looking into its eyes is enough to petrify someone. There’s something hypnotic about it, something that seems like it’s drawing you into the well. And why shouldn’t you climb in? What’s stopping you? Danger is forgotten; the creature in the well has made a target of you. Hopefully you have someone to pull you out of the trance–or, maybe if you’re strong enough, you can do it yourself. If you lose the battle with the creature, you will fall unconscious just as you hit the water in the well; you will feel the sensation of something coiling around you, crushing you, and then–blackness. You will wake up in a hospital with a day lost and no memory of what happened in the well, or how you were pulled out. You only have bumps and bruises, and when you close your eyes you’re haunted by the chilling golden eyes in the well. If you return to it, you’ll find nothing but a strange, croaking echo. For all that he’d stopped…anything involving magics and knight things and the like for two years, once Kom El Shoqafa got started again it was almost as if he’d never stopped patrolling. Granted, he was a bit more tired during the day, but he was doing well enough despite that. He did regular patrols, but never the same route twice in a row, making sure to ‘shake things up’ every once in a while and go somewhere new. There was no telling when something or someone might crop up, after all. Thus it was that night that he was moving through the park only to spot a well – and hearing something within. He quickly came to a halt, turning and going straight to the well. Despite how it sounded, his immediate thoughts were more along the lines of ’Someone needs help, they must have fallen in!’ rather than the more rational thought of ’There’s something in here I should avoid or leave alone.’So when he peered into the well, seeing those eerie glowing eyes, he was already half considering jumping in. Seeing the eyes gave him a jolt of ‘maybe not’, only to be followed by the same initial thought of ‘needs help’. He was already climbing onto the well. Oh dear.
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 4:37 pm
Lanting found himself wandering in places where he knew that those decorative old wells were, now that he'd had two different encounters with them. Almost fallen in himself, and had to pull someone else out. He didn't intend to go diving himself anymore, but he sure was going to keep an eye out for other people getting ready to fall into the strange trap that seemed to lurk within.
Whatever it was, he really, really wished that it could be destroyed, but that didn't seem to be possible. And anyway, he wasn't the one to do it.
And he was glad for it, because--oh, s**t. That was a Saturn Knight. Not Kaifeng, outfit too masc and power signature smaller, but one of his fellows, and Lanting wasn't about to let a fellow Knight fall into whatever trap was in there.
"Hey!" He called, and he ran forward, glad for a Squire's increased speed, "don't, you're gonna hurt yourself!"
Just like with Tololo, he reached out to grab the Page's arm and start pulling him back and away.
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 5:09 pm
The compulsion (was it a compulsion? Shoqafa wasn't quite sure) to get within the well was broken with the contact, though he certainly wasn't quite ready to move away from the well, instead turning his back on it to look at the person who'd stopped him. ...he didn't recognize him. But that was hardly unusual, there were many he didn't recognize. "But why -- I know I'll risk being hurt, but someone's in there...?" There was almost a whine in the back of his throat as he protested.
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 7:34 pm
"No," Lanting said, "there is not someone in there, trust me. Or if there is? They don't want to be rescued. They want to hurt you." He said it with all the certainty and confidence he could muster, because he needed to get through to this poor Page.
"I get it. You're a good Knight. You want to help people. But you can't help whoever--or whatever--is down there. I almost fell in, and someone saved me. I had to help someone else, and now you." And Lanting was absolutely not going to let go and let this poor b*****d fall in. Not tonight. Not on his watch.
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 7:58 pm
"But I saw--" He cut himself off, looking back once more but not making any movement to try and crawl into the well again. "There were eyes...have there really been people getting in there? If it's going to cause harm, doesn't that just mean even more that we should be getting in there and taking care of it so it can't mess with anyone else?" He still seemed determined -- but...confused.
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 8:41 pm
"Lots of things have eyes," Lanting said. It was a simple, flat declaration of fact. "Many of which are very much not people."
It felt weird, to be in a serious, almost mentor-y position, or at least to be teaching someone about something magic-related.
"It's not a youma, and it's not just in this well, which makes me think maybe it's not something we can 'take care of.' But I haven't heard of anybody drowning, or anything, so whatever it is, it might not be deadly. Just.....really, really unfriendly. So we should leave it alone, so we don't find out if I'm wrong about the 'deadly' thing, yeah?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 9:23 pm
"Not even -- wait, no. Leaving a sign wouldn't help, either, people wouldn't believe the sign," he almost deflated, finally looking away from the well and taking a couple of steps away. "It just feels wrong to do nothing about it, though, even if it's not something that anything can be done...about?" He let out another heavy sigh, reaching up to rub at the bridge of his nose just beneath the glasses. "And I know things have eyes. They were just so...vibrant. Big. And it sounded like a people..."
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 10:19 pm
"Nope," Lanting said. "I've just....made a point of patrolling wherever I know these wells are, looking for people getting sucked in."
He sighed. "I know it sounds like a person. I wanted to help too. But the best we can do is looking for other people and stopping them from falling in, so....come with me? We can keep patrolling to check out some of the other wells near here, make sure no one else is trying to dive in, and pull out anyone who looks like they're going to have an unfortunate accident?"
It seemed like the obvious solution, at least to Lanting. Plus, it was always good to have some backup. Especially for a Page who had no magic yet.
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 10:25 pm
"There's more than one?" He sounded so exhausted thinking about it now, complete with an almost restrained groan. "Well, if you could point out where others are to me...we can both keep an eye out whenever we're out and about." And better strength in numbers. Right. Right. Surely. He gave what looked to be a half-bow, keeping his eyes on Lanting and giving a small smile. "If you'd lead the way~"
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