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 Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:49 pm
Quote: Walking anywhere at night can be risky in Destiny City, but tonight it’s not being attacked by some punk in a strange outfit. The squeaking above you is a dead giveaway that you’re not going to have a good night. Perhaps you remember the flock of bats that swarmed down on Destiny City last year; if you’re lucky, this is your first time being attacked by one. Thankfully it seems like a lone bat has made its way out of whatever cave they’ve moved from, but this thing is giant. It has a six foot wingspan. Does the bat fly away without harassing you? Do you fight it? If it scratches you, you walk away fine, but if it bites you then you can expect a rough time. Being bitten by these bats leaves two small marks that will itch for a few hours. Then, exhaustion and fatigue sets in and you become extremely sensitive to external stimulus; skin feels like it becomes overheated in sunlight, bright lights are painful to the eyes, and smells and sounds can seem overwhelming. The victim will feel constantly cold and hungry, no matter how much they eat or drink. They may also be prone to agitation and bouts of violence. These afflictions may last only a few hours or a few days and then suddenly disappear.
One of the juice cartons exploded in a shower of sticky, sweet droplets against the side of the creature's head, causing it to screech and Kit to cringe at the air-splitting sound. He was also not pleased that in addition to the drink being wasted, half of it was splattered all over him and seeping through his clothes and hair, which meant he required a shower.
Why now? he wondered, his irritation growing with the time spent battling the monster. At least there was only one of them that he could tell, he supposed, but who knew when more would come? If he didn't get rid of this one soon, perhaps more would follow, drawn by the commotion and the promise of an easy supper.
If only he could reach his pen. If he was able to power up, he could easier fight back the beast and, if there was some other force or person nearby governing it, pin-point their source by their energy signatures.Strickenized ((Please let me know if there's anything I need to change!))
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Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 11:05 am
Elex assumed the role of his old self with the hope that his lingering migraine would abate. He didn't know what else to call it — his head throbbed, light stabbed through his eyes, and sounds nearly lobotomized him. Touch hurt in a peculiar way, as if a brush to the shoulder was a punch. And while he wanted to simply retire his duties and think no more of the day, 'efficiency' cursed him with more to do.
The sun began its downward turn not long ago, so Elex cast his attention downward. Never once had he feared the sun, for black eyes provided plenty of pigment to guard his gaze, but he now needed aviator sunglasses. He felt ridiculous for it — sunglasses seldom accompanied his looks, unlike his brother's. And as he strode with steady steps, trying much too hard to ignore the too-loud voices babbling about him, one mentioned a topic of interest.
'Mentioned', however, was an understatement.
The girl screamed, woefully too close to him, and called to friends and family about a giant back. And as he glanced in the direction of her gesture, he saw it himself — one of the bats from earlier assaulted a grocery-laden young man. You're in for it now, stranger. The creature dipped and shrieked and flapped and fought and scratched with a useless ire, even as the boy swung his foodstuffs at his adversary. If little else, it provided a mild show. Others thought so as well, given the number of cell phones that appeared with cameras angled toward the scene.
A shop owner shouted for the boy to come inside — for others to do the same — and Elex obeyed at once. He wanted nothing further to do with the bats. Already he wondered if he contracted rabies from them.
As he walked inside, he considered spitting in the city's water supply. At least that would end the war.
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Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 2:31 pm
Wonderful. By the shouts, screams, and cries heard above the bat's wingbeats, squeaks, and shrieking, it seemed they had an audience. Kit might have been very slightly perturbed that the others were fleeing and hiding instead of attempting to assist him, but he couldn't blame them. It was instinct and human nature to put one's survival above others, and as long as he was occupying the bat, the chances it would go after someone else were slim. At least he had faced the things before, so he had some experience in beating the beast back.
Thanks to that experience, he also knew better than to keep any part of him anywhere near the creature's mouth. Terrible symptoms had overcome those who had been bitten the prior year for what Kit recalled had been unofficially referred to as 'The Vampire Sickness'. He had no desire to end up bedridden for days, fatigued, freezing, starving, and agitated with an oversensitivity to everything.
Aw crap, the juice is starting to dry, he thought in disgust, feeling the sticky, wet droplets begin to congeal on his person and stiffen his clothes. As he glanced down at himself to assess how broadly the liquid had splattered over him, the bat found an opening and dove. He brought up another carton of juice in defence, struggling to keep it as a barrier between his face and jaws with snapping fangs. Its visage gave Kit the impression of an monsterous staple remover. As it gnashed its teeth, its clawed feet scrabbled to gain purchase against him and slashed his arm and torso. I don't have time for this s**t.
The young man ducked and, swinging his arm up, slammed the second juice carton into the side of the beast's skull near the place where the first had struck. It shrieked and flapped wildly, finally seeming to have had enough, and Kit thought he saw where he might have smashed his makeshift weapon into its eye. Deterred from its intended victim and with no others within easy reach just then, it climbed laboriously higher into the air, wings beating with all their might, until it had gained enough altitude to clear the skyline and escape into the dark.
Kit wanted dearly to simply collapse where he was and lie on the ground for some time, but he knew that wasn't wise. Blood from his chest and stomach had begun to seep into his already damp clothes and the metallic scent mingled with his perspiration and the tainted essence of pineapple and mango. Shaking from the exertion of his ordeal, he turned to find several people flashing photos and recording videos with their phones. Just what I need.
Smiling weakly, he raised a hand at his audience. Then he picked up his groceries with what remained of his strength and trudged into the nearest alley, hoping he wouldn't be followed. He needed to power up. A few minutes later saw him slumped against a fire escape ladder as Ptolemaeus, breathing hard and still bleeding, but mercifully free of juice. He leaned unsteadily against the ladder, eyes closed as he pressed the cloth of his outfit to his cuts, hoping to staunch the the blood flow as best he could. Thankfully, they didn't seem like deep wounds, but they burned and stung when he moved even the slightest bit.
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 7:33 pm
Elex was one of the first to leave the establishment when the bat's screeching diminished. His view from the window told him that the beast flew from its attacker, and yet the attacker similarly disappeared. Frowning slightly, Elex broached the screaming daylight to look for any indications — distant wings, droppings, a downed pedestrian. Instead, he found a street slowly filling with similarly confused bystanders. The sun bit through the heavy tint on his glasses, however, and flowered his skull open with blistering pain. The rowdy crowd's commentary cut sharply against his eardrums, and he very nearly rejected the idea altogether.
Elex wound his curiosity out through the bystander-speckled streets. He looked to inlets and alleyways, to receiving areas and cleverly-obscured parking lots. No sign of the dark-haired youth who fought off his attacker with groceries. Had he simply disappeared? His frown deepened as too-expensive ankle boots carried him further. Another glance down another alley, and by the half-folded fire escape, he recognized one of its sights. He clung meekly to its twisted steel, all draped in fabrics exotic and unidentified, and clutched at himself in obvious wounding. Elex set his jaw; was it worth approaching him? Was he at all related to the youth that disappeared? Was that very victim him?
He doubted it; the Mirror Senshi's presence was a portent of frustration.
Still he approached, against his better judgments, and ceased his advance once he reached the mouth of the alleyway. "I know you." A hand pressed taut against the bricked corner. He peered through aviators at the blood spreading over clothes. As a senshi, you're in poor shape to attack me now. Would you chance an audience? "Looks like you found some trouble for yourself. Was it a bat that attacked? Or a man?" Or a youma? They know no love for your kind, chaos or not.
No one does. Pity the poor Dark Mirror Court. Ever an outcast to a war that doesn't want you.
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Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2017 10:13 pm
Approaching footfalls forced the senshi's weary eyes to snap open and he looked up so sharply, he thought he might have pulled a muscle in his neck. Ptolemy translated his grimace into a grin, however, upon identifying the teenager who made himself known.
"...Do you?" he responded to the statement addressed to him, perplexed by it. "Heheheh...sorry, angel face, but I can't honestly say the feeling's mutual." It bothered him profoundly, too. Ptolemaeus filtered through the faces memorized in his mind, but he couldn't place that of the well-dressed adolescent who stood before him. Perhaps he had lost too much blood for his brain to function as it should have. It probably hadn't been a good idea to laugh when even his light chuckles contacted his bleeding stomach. At least the pain was vivid enough to keep him from passing out right then and there.
He was also immensely grateful that he wasn't alone. Even the other male, unknown though he was to Ptolemy, provided him with comfort simply by being near. Why did he follow me here? he found himself wondering. He doesn't have his phone out or anything, so it couldn't have been that he was all that interested in the fight. He seems dressed too sharply for me to have simply run into him out on an energy-gathering escapade. So where would he know me from? Why would he have had enough of an interest to follow me back here? Ptolemy's dark brows rose. Could we have met while he was powered up? But then, what faction is he with?
"Seems like I'm always doing that, powered or not," the super sailor scout mused aloud in response to the comment about having found trouble. "This time it was a bat; or at least whatever monster that was that resembled a bat." Hm...he said a bat rather than that bat. Does that mean he didn't see what just happened? Or has he seen enough of those bats around lately that he figures it could have been a different one who did this? "If it had been a man, I would have enjoyed it a lot more," he teased. "How come? Have you run into one of those things before?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 12:13 am
Angel face. "It wouldn't be." Elex recalled well enough the nature of their first meeting. To see him now, lacking that pride, crippled by injury proved intriguing. When no longer hale of form, his flaunted affections waned. Elex preferred it.
Elex lingered in the slanting sun, in the public domain just beyond the mouth of the alley. He loitered where Ptolemy could not, ostensibly, without drawing attention to himself. Needless attention, Elex wagered — the bleeding hole in his stomach promised a dismal performance. The creature referenced left him in poor shape for draining, talking, escaping. Likely he needed medical attention soon. Such a wound must have pained him so. Was he expecting assistance? He would find none in Elex's cool gaze. I don't owe you favors, Mirror Senshi. You've earned no loyalty in me.
"I've seen more," he confirmed readily enough. His sunglasses assured photosensitivity of a sort, even in the setting sun. "I've been bitten." A pause, and Elex meticulously rolled a sleeve upward to expose a pair of needle-thin parry wounds. He waited only so long for his companion to recognize it, then fixed his sleeve.
"It hurts for a while. Itches. Burns. Then you seel too sensitive. Cold gets too cold. Hot gets too hot. You'll want to lay in a dark, quiet room. Maybe sleep through it. Food seems unappetizing.
"This is my second day. Touch still hurts. The rest is improving. You're in for more of the same." If you survive, he considered, as his gaze touched on that stomach wound. All that from a bat when you would've preferred a man. Forward, aren't you. Crass. Ill-equipped to fight off a bat.
Bleed, then. It's your best talent.
"But don't let me keep you, Senshi. You need a hospital."
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Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 5:22 pm
The admission that the teen before him had seen more and been bitten drew Ptolemy's gaze just in time to witness the monster bat bite marks that were briefly exposed. Though he hadn't doubted the other individual to begin with, he was astonished that the other male was taking the time to show him, let alone explain the suffering that had followed the bite. He seemed so disinterested, so why was he still sticking around?
As someone who was pretty confident with his memory, it was maddening to the senshi that he didn't know where this young man knew him from. Perhaps that might have given him some clue as to why the guy was bothering to caution him at all. Did he want to see his face when Ptolemy was told the misery that he expected awaited the sailor scout?
I guess he doesn't realize I got clawed up instead of bitten, he thought with grim amusement. Not that I'm in any less danger of dying. But whatever reason he's telling me this stuff, I'm not about to be ungrateful. Sounds like the symptoms he experienced were slightly different from the 'Vampire Sickness' ones they described last year, though. Huh.
A soft, low whistle left his lips. "Wow. You went through all that? And...just yesterday?" Though strained, his grin broadened in genuine admiration. "s**t...must've been rough." He dipped his head slightly, gritting his teeth against the pain of the action. "Thanks for the warning. Dunno 'bout a hospital, but...'m sure I can find a dark, quiet place somewhere with first aid."
He needed to find a mirror. Good thing the court left a few good-sized ones in alleyways and back streets all around the city. The nearest wasn't too far. "Farewell, then, stranger," he said, repurposing the hand he'd attempted to brush away his perspiration to offer a casual, two-fingered salute instead. "If you know me from elsewhere, I hope we somehow meet again."
Biting back the agony that roared its way through his wounded arm and torso, he kicked off the walls, ricocheting back and forth, to launch himself up to the roof where few others could pursue by sight or foot.
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