|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 1:36 pm
The first thing Sailor Pyxis registered when his eyelids fluttered open was that everything was pretty hurty. It felt uncannily like the time he had accompanied his friends on a road trip to the beach; they'd stayed too long for his tastes, prompting him to take a nap on the sand. Pyxis recalled one prominent thing from that trip, which was the fact that sand had the unfortunate ability to wedge itself everywhere you didn't want it to be. He found himself experiencing this phenomenon a second time as he painfully rubbed away the sand that had caked itself all over his eyes and the corners of his mouth. This was not only painful, but particularly unsettling, considering the fact that he had not been at the beach moments ago, he had not remembered falling asleep, and-
Wasn't he on patrol?
"Abel?" he murmured, forcing himself to sit up. "Tallulah?" Sand tumbled out of the pleats in the skirt over his fuku's capris, only managing to get trapped again within the bright yellow cuffs at his knees. This was terrible. He already wasn't very good at patrols, was a complete failure when it came to fighting the Negaverse...and now he had somehow managed to relocate himself to the desert?
Abel was going to kill him. And this was not coming up at the next Basterds meeting. That friend of Tallulah's with the awful potty-mouth would never let him hear the end of it, he was sure.
It was impossible to suppress a groan as he stood up to brush all of the sand off of himself. As it collected beneath his fingernails and scratched at his palms, he tried to get a better idea of where he could possibly be. The vast expanse of land was dizzying, and it took a while to get himself oriented. As best he could, at least. Everything hurt his eyes, and the sun here was way brighter than he'd ever seen his Firefly Flash get. He thought he could see a beach or lake of sorts in the distance, its waves lapping against the border between blinding sun and itchy sand. Maybe he could make it to that in time to take a really nice bath and get a drink of water. A drink of water sure would be nice.
His small feet trudged through the sand in the direction of the water as he worked through ways that he might have gotten here, quietly speaking each aloud.
"...did I learn to teleport? I bet Abel woulda told me if I knew how to teleport, probably not...and nobody offered me any candy to get in a van or anything..."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 1:59 pm
The sun was bearing down like it meant to run Pyxis to the ground. Maybe it did.
He looked out across the sand, and as he did, he thought he saw something just at the bottom of his eyes . . . but no, when, he looked, it was gone.
But wait, there it came again, faint movement.
He snapped around to catch it this time, and he thought he almost had it. He looked down at himself, trying to focus, but there it was a third time, it was on his arm, his arm. It was as though -- well, almost as though -- kind of as though -- as though the freckles on his arms were moving.
But surely that couldn't have happened.
No.
Surely.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 3:34 am
Pyxis wasn't the only one looking for water in that empty desert. The senshi of fireflies had found his way off the sand and onto a rougher but equally sun-baked surface, the dried out belly of a river that no longer was. There was someone kneeling in the riverbed, sifting through the dirt as though expecting if he dug deeply enough he'd hit the water clearly missing from the surface. The digger in question was tall, dark-skinned, with long dreadlocks tied back behind him and several scars cutting unsightly grooves into his face. He wore a uniform that was vaguely recognizable - Cavalier Kunzite dressed like this, though Cavalier Kunzite's uniform was white and blue, not white and black.
It sounded like whispering from far off, coalescing into the hint of words. But when Pyxis got close enough, he could see the cavalier wasn't moving his lips. The cavalier wasn't moving a lot save for the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, and the way his hands shoveled into the dirt at the whim of a base instinct that couldn't save him. Pyxis was quite close now. Someone was definitely speaking - but there was no one in sight but the two of them.
"It's just a field of dust."
The black and white cavalier looked like he was trying very hard to ignore the disembodied male voice, eyes fixed on the handful of powdery dirt he'd scooped into his hands. It sifted out slowly between the clasp of his fingers. The voice they both heard wasn't loud, nor was the message particularly terrifying. Sounded about right; this place was just dust and sand as far as the eye could see.
But... reality wasn't narrated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 10:07 am
Considering the way that the "waves" seemed to be "lapping" at the horizon, it didn't alarm Pyxis to see movement. Initially. The second time startled him, but more unsettling than the idea of something moving nearby was the fact that he just couldn't seem to get a good glimpse of what it was. And that had to mean it was really, really fast, which could be trouble. Being a Senshi did give him a bit of a boost, but he wasn't that quick and limber to begin with. If it was a youma, he might be able to wrangle it into submission (maybe if he smiled and asked politely?) but if it was something worse...?
His stomach did flipflops as he looked down at his dirty hands, trying to clear his mind. But something was moving there too, wasn't it? Were...were his freckles dancing? He hadn't called out any fireflies, and freckles didn't dance. That meant bugs.
His arms began to itch at the thought of it, and he was sure he could feel something crawling in his hair, making a creepy bug-nest under all of his hairclips. His skin was crawling - literally? - and he knew there were bugs, there had to be bugs, and they weren't the cute kind, and this was really, really gross.
The change in terrain barely fazed him, his mind focused on the creepy-crawlies. When he reached the other person, it startled him; he wondered just how long he hadn't been paying attention. Had those whispers always been there? The uneasy Senshi took a deep breath before he spoke, scratching idly at his arms like an addict.
"Hey, hey...? Mister?" Pyxis bent down to kneel next to him. He sure looked like he could use some company, and Pyxis could use someone to keep him rooted in sanity, even if he did happen to be barking up the wrong tree in this case. "Did you hear that, too? I'm trying to find some water and something told me it was all dust. I don't need dust..."
He was quiet for a moment, watching the sand sift through the strange person's fingers. "How come you're doing that?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 10:24 am
A shift again, out of the corner of his eye. This time, when Pyxis looked down, he was sure his freckles had been moving -- because now, when he looked down, the freckles on the elbow side of his wristguards said
NOR
and the ones on the other side, the back of his hand, said
TH.
They definitely hadn't said that before. He would've noticed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 4:43 pm
Faithfully obeying whatever it was that kept him continually wanting to check his arms for the 'bugs', Pyxis let out the most pitiful "ohnooooo" as he saw what was, apparently, the word "NORTH" nestled among the reddening scratches. He wasn't really sure why he felt such a sense of dread at the realization that his freckles had become a word, but that wasn't very important because his freckles had become a word.
He ignored every Law of the Personal Space Bubble and reached out to touch the stranger's shoulder, shaking him just slightly.
"I, hey, excuse me..? Can you see this stuff too? I'm kinda scared. Are you scared? Um...I...help?" He really wanted to talk to this other person, to perhaps gain a little more understanding of where he was, but he couldn't shake the nagging feeling that he needed to go north...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
