|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2025 9:19 pm
Quote: Pinecone Projectile (10) : A strange anomaly has befallen Destiny City. Ordinarily, a falling pine cone would hardly be worth noticing; there are plenty of them littering the city on a daily basis. However, recently some of these pine cones are causing a bit of noise. Scientists are blaming some bacteria in the trees natural sap as being responsible, but some pine cones are falling to the ground and making loud crackling, popping sounds–or worse, exploding upon contact. As if the sound of small explosives aren’t enough, some reports even claim to have witnessed sparks and small fires. You’d better be careful when walking around any areas with trees–and definitely don’t start throwing these just to see what happens!
And that was the rub, wasn't it? Getting used to it. Carving out time in her routine to be Karakorum, to go out in the cold and fight evil or whatever she was supposed to do. Belial and Shuangxu were pretty clearly doing their best as mentors, but Belial was about as suited to it as a loafer on a salmon and Shuangxu was her loser older brother, so she was sort of used to tuning him out. So fine, whatever, get out and do it and figure out the rest.
She was surprised that she didn't feel like she was freezing, given how light and airy her outfit was, but she guessed that was maybe one of the benefits of bring magical. And anyway, as she trudged through the snowy, cold park, she heard a strange crackling, which drew her eyes to the nearby pinecones and made her squint at them briefly and, indeed, unhappily.
They looked...strange.
And maybe convenient, because when she looked ahead of her--
Long hair. Black uniform. A general feeling of gross unease, which was probably that aura thing Shuangxu and Belial had banged on about. And the stranger with the stupid long hair dressed in black looked like she had her hands on some poor person who was sagging over.
Energy draining. That was what they did, right? That was what Karakorum was supposed to stop?
"Hey!" She shouted, and she picked up a weird, crackly-sounding pinecone, "let them go! Pick on somebody your own strength!"
She hurled the pinecone with all her might, hoping that it whacked the stranger in black hard enough to get her attention away from the poor person being drained.
Would that mean her attention was now on Karakorum? Sure, but that was future Karakorum's problem.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2025 9:44 pm
Draining. Ako hated it. She felt immense guilt in doing it. But it wasn't like she really had a choice, after all. She kept murmuring apologies to the poor person, morally feeling awful. If this was the price she had to pay, though, for the opportunity given to her, she would pay it. And deeply apologize while doing so. She would have to ask others how they felt about it and possibly, if they felt guilt like she did, how they dealt with it. But for now, this would have to be something she thought about later. She was just murmuring another apology and gently putting the energy ball into her subspace when a shout made her pause. Order. Crap. Just lovely. Absolutely not what she needed right now. The one damn time she tries to do her job, of course Order would find her. Ako grit her teeth and moved to try and somehow get the person she had drained out of harms way, but an explosive smack on her back caused her to yelp in pain. Go figure. Those <********> pinecones again. She carefully laid the draining victim down and turned to face however had thrown the pinecone, looking decidedly pissed off. "I'm sure it doesn't seem like it matters, but you could have injured more than just me." She gestured to the person on the ground behind her as she stepped forward. "But if it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get."It was rare for Ako to feel angry, especially at someone she didn't know. But this was her first time draining, and her second misfortune with the pinecones, and she was cold and tired and she was over it today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2025 5:11 pm
The pinecone exploded.
That was not what Karakorum had anticipated, and maybe she would have been more careful if she'd known they would do that. But it was too late now; the poor civilian was getting lowered down and the Senshi was turning to her.
Okay. It was definitely Future Karakorum Time, and that meant she had to deal with an angry Senshi staring her down.
....Well, ******** you really lecturing me???" Karakorum demanded, maximum offended. "You? The person who was just sucking that dude's life force like some kind of stupid hot energy vampire? You're lecturing me because you don't like my method for getting you to stop doing that?" Like, the rank and blatant hypocrisy. How ******** dare this pretty girl in black talk s**t.
"I didn't know about the stupid pinecones," she said, "but even if I did, you'd still be wayyy more in the wrong here, okay? Sucking people's life out is bad. That's like....so obvious I can't believe I need to say it."
And then she scooped up another snapping pinecone and hurled it as hard as she could, just to punctuate her point.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2025 5:30 pm
Ako's brow twitched and she had to take a deep breath to calm herself. "At least let me move away from them, damnit!" She moved to let the pinecone hit her, wincing at the explosion. Despite having taken their energy, she didn't want the civilian to be harmed further and did her best to shield them. She stepped quickly away from the unconscious civilian and drew herself up to her full height, glaring at the girl. "Yes, I am lecturing you. At least I'm careful with what I'm doing. I'm not some reckless novice who doesn't think before she acts!" She kept a decent distance from the girl, carefully circling to a point that if she threw another pinecone, the civilian wouldn't be harmed. "Do you think I like doing this? That I enjoy it? God you really have no idea about anything!"Was she taking her frustrations out on the girl? Perhaps. But did that make her words untrue? Not in the least. She hated having to drain people, hated having to know that she was causing distress, but it was the price she had to pay. Perhaps she needed to send a stronger message to this girl. "Pyrocumulus." Fire ignited around Karakorum's feet, encircling her as a cloud formed over her, hot ash beginning to rain down on her. Ako had never enjoyed fighting, even before as an Order senshi. But this time, she wanted to put her opponent in her place. Badly. Her eyes landed on a pinecone nearby and she gingerly picked it up before throwing it directly into the flames, letting whatever would happen, happen.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2025 7:50 pm
"If it sucks so much, don't ******** do it! Duh!" Like, wasn't that ******** obvious??? How did it even need to be said??? "Are you all so stupid and brainwashed that you can't see what's right in front of you?
Not that she was going to break Chaos brainwashing by yelling at it, but wow, clearly her geges had not been kidding about this whole situation.
And then there was fire and ash, and Karakorum yelped in pain, scrambling backwards and away from it just in time to get barely out of range of one of the weird pinecones to contact the fiery magic and--
Boom.
The force knocked her off her feet into the snow, and--nope, she was not getting burned by hot pinecone today.
"Double ******** you, you--huàidàn green tea b***h!"
With that, she scrambled to her feet and ran.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
