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 Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2025 8:01 pm
The storm was terrifying.
Well. Less the storm and actually more the threat of rain was, because it meant Xavier was forced to carry his tablet around rather than his actual books and…well. He really didn’t like that. But he would rather do that than risk any of his books getting water damage on any level. So the teen just sucked it up, taking it on the chin as though it had a significant effect on the quality of his day to day life.
He would argue yes, but probably only with a glare before he promptly turned away and left to go do something more productive than argue with someone who didn’t understand.
Today was no different, with the gray and purple clouds looming overhead, threatening rain and thunder and lightning. He pulled his jacket closed as it sat a bit awkwardly on him at the moment because he wore his backpack underneath to protect it from potential water. It gave him the silhouette of Quasimodo, but appearances were far less important to him than making sure his school things were intact when he got home. It was only a little uncomfortable, so he sucked that up, too, as he made his way toward his favorite book cafe.
He was only a block away when he thought he heard the sound of crackling coming from the alley he was just passing. Which was…weird? At least it wasn’t something he ever expected to hear, so he glanced toward it and froze. Because rather than darkness, he could swear he thought he spotted a giant pot-shaped, planet-like creature with whipping vines that seemed to occasionally pop and crackle with a purple charge. The teen blinked disbelievingly in its direction, and had it not charged him, he might have continued to stare at it and question h is sanity for an indefinite amount of time.
As soon as it lunged, though, he broke free of any doubt that it was real and started booking it down the street.
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2025 10:33 am
These days, it was almost unheard of for Riker to not be out anywhere without Julian or Cassidy. Especially after promising them that he would be more honest about things. In this case, he was on his way home after walking Cassidy to his. He’d made sure Julian had a ride with Elliot and Atticus, and while they’d offered to drive them as well, he needed some time to keep his head clear.
The heavy thoughts of Earth potentially being in danger lingered. There wasn’t much he could personally do, but he wanted to stay prepared as best he could.
He certainly wasn’t prepared to see that nerdy kid racing down the street. Riker knew it was likely going to rain, but it was pretty comical seeing him running so quickly.
Oh… oh it was because there was a damn youma.
Riker hissed a curse, but was confident Xavier hadn’t seen him as he ducked into the alley to power up and then chase after it.
“Hey!” he shouted at the youma as he raced to catch up, trying to draw its attention, his sword at the ready. He was absolutely going to chop the plant into compost once he caught up.
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Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2025 10:05 pm
It could talk?!
Xavier couldn’t help but reiterate something he picked up in all the reading he’d ever done in his current fourteen years of life–he never, ever, wanted to be the main character in any kind of story. Rather than go through however many dramatic, though undoubtedly fulfilling, experiences and earn exponentially greater rewards at the end of the day, he would much rather spend his life as easy and carefree as possible.
And why was that, one might ask?
This was why. This was exactly why. A strange something-or-other chasing after him, even going so far as to call out to him as it did. What, did it think he would actually stop just because it asked nicely?!
“Fat chance!” he cried out in huffs, running faster than he was usually capable of due to the adrenaline. “You’re not catching me you–”
The teen chanced a glance back, and between the pot-plant’s bounces he spotted someone else behind it. A human someone! With a sword! Maybe he was the main character here, and Xavier was just the poor soul nearby that had to be the target because his plot called for it?!
He quietly prayed that that was exactly the case as he turned his attention back to directly ahead of him.
Just in time, too. The cross traffic light was green, and granted there didn’t seem to be any cars around one could still zoom in from out of nowhere, run him over, and turn him into roadkill. So he dropped to do a baseball sort of slide that only half worked to break a bit of his momentum.
He skidded right into the light pole.
The plant, right on his tail, came to a grinding halt as well, a most horrendous screech-cackle escaping it as it shot its charged vines out at the downed teenager.
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Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2025 6:40 pm
Reims could only watch in horror as the strange drama (comedy?) unfolded before him. The nerdy kid -- Xavier, he reminded himself -- being chased by some horrible radioactive (no) plant. Oh and the vines? That was definitely not going to end well for a twinky kid like Xavier.
So Reims did the most logical thing as he raced towards the plant and kid who was helplessly on the ground, and he took a big step and kicked the plant as hard as he could.
The plant that was also using its vines to grip onto the light pole Xavier had slid into.
Which meant it was only a fraction of a second for the pot to whip around and clobber Reims in the back, sending him and his sword to the ground as well. With a lot of cursing of course.
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 12:21 am
Okay, well.
Most superheroes struggled when encountering an enemy for the very first time. Maybe that was why this one got clobbered so easily. Her was just getting started! That had to be it.
Xavier was wincing at the pain coursing through his entire body. If the burning on his legs was any indication, he probably got some kind of rug burn-esque rash, not to mention what slamming into the pole did to the rest of him. He probably should have just been grateful he was still awake and able to move…
The plant let out another screech-cackle as it turned its attention back to Xavier and again shot its vines out at him, soon wrapping them around his body and lifting him up off of the ground. There was little the teen could do at that point, except writhe and wriggle about in its gasp.
“Let me go!” he cried out, the last bit of his words cutting short as it literally started to squeeze the life out of him.
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2025 7:04 pm
Okay, this was bullshit. Being taken out by a ******** plant? Oh, he was mad now. He was not going to let this scrawny little nerd that he used to make fun of get killed by a stupid plant!
Without bothering to get all the way up to his feet, Reims brushed his hand over the brooch at his chest. From it, a large winged lion burst forth in an ethereal cloud of smoke and light. Wings like stained glass folded against its sides, while black fur twinkled like starlight.
It lunged forward with a bellowing roar, claws and teeth slashing at the youma, tearing it to pieces.
Reims soon jumped in to help, but he didn’t bother grabbing his sword off the ground. Instead, he flung his hand out towards the youma, and as if his sword was tied to a string, it followed the motion of Reims’ hand and was sent flying towards the vines.
Instead of letting the dumb kid fall on his a**, Reims hurried over to hold his arms out to attempt to catch him while his lion tore the youma into dust.
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 5:53 pm
The winged lion coming out of nowhere and shredding into his captor was a happy distraction from getting squeezed to death, and before he knew it the superhero was up and on his feet again, running toward him and making strange gesture that somehow summoned his sword to do his bidding. And really, only one thing came to mind: it had to be magic.
At this point that was the only thing that made any kind of sense given what all was happening, but his thoughts were pulled away from that in the moments that followed.
One second he was held securely up in the air–against his will, but he at least felt supported–and then the next second, he felt that support fall away and the full force of gravity pulled him back toward the ground. Xavier fully expected to faceplant into the concrete, but instead he landed rather safely in the arms of the superhero.
Still, the teen flinched instinctively, eyes closed and body tense as he waited for the impact.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2025 6:22 pm
Awkward.
Reims caught the teenager as he came crashing down, sure, but then what? His lion was finishing off the plant creature, and it poofed into dust with a particularly loud crunch. Once dust, the lion immediately started working on trying to get the taste out of his mouth by rubbing at his tongue with his paws.
Hopefully the taste wouldn’t linger in whatever subspace Reims recalled him to, but once that was taken care of, he quickly lowered Xavier to the ground.
Except he wasn’t sure how to set him down. Tip him until he was on his feet? Would he know to stand? What if he ended up tripping again because he was unsteady on his legs?
Eventually, Reims decided to just… lower the other boy all the way to the ground, and awkwardly backed away.
“Okay, yeah, don’t be out here at night, what is wrong with you? You could have gotten eaten or whatever! You know what? Do what you want, I’m not your mom!”
He didn’t want anyone getting eaten! But he also didn’t know what to do about it other than, what? Warn people that youma were bad? And it wasn’t like Xavier wasn’t already running for it.
“Uh. Good job not dying, I guess,” he awkwardly shrugged and glanced from one side of the street to the other, as though trying to decide if he should just awkwardly walk away or what.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 9:28 pm
That was…weird.
But.
Alright.
Xavier slowly got to his feet, clearing his throat as he dusted himself off as if he had some sort of image he wanted to uphold in front of this superhero. His face was burning red despite that, but he was doing best to ignore it. It was hard to describe how he felt about not only being caught in someone’s arms, but then right after being slowly lowered to the ground like that.
And then he started getting an earful, some sort of lecture, from him?
If possible, Xavier's face burned that much hotter, and it looked like someone could have possibly fried an egg on each cheek.
“I was trying to go somewhere quiet to do my homework!” And read, but that was beside the point. He had more to say, but then he went and gave him a verbal pat on the back for not dying. Which.
Yeah, that had to count as an accomplishment considering what just happened.
So he let his defenses go in the form of a heavy sigh, and started patting himself down to make sure he still had all of his things. Because yes, that was important now that he wasn’t in immediate danger of being eaten by…something. Which.
“What was that thing, anyway?” he asked, because he felt at this point he had a right to know. “First time I’ve seen anything like it.”
Oh, did he have more to say. That it wasn’t normal. LIke it was a creature straight out of a novel, just like this superhero was like a character straight out of another novel (or hey, maybe the same one). But he was too distracted by the task of making sure his bag was fine–that his tablet and school things were all okay and still usable. He still had homework to do!
And more reading, but again. Beside the point.
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