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Something fishy was going on in town.

And yes, water was indeed still wet.

But really. Nix had spotted during his nightly training session a couple days ago some kind of big obelisk thing. As he got closer to it, he had a very strong sensation of dread and decided to back away. Tonight, though. He was going to see this thing. He was going to touch it. He was going to lick it.

Was that the best plan? Possibly not. But when you have superpowers involving a big tongue…what else could be done? Besides. It was a challenge. An adventure!

So it was that he took to building-hopping, making his way there carefully. A little more slowly than he might have done otherwise…keeping an eye out for odd things. He thought about calling up Themi to come with him but decided against it. Nix didn’t want to seem like a scaredy-frog, and it was just an obelisk, after all…right? (And it was providing ample opportunity to say or think the word ‘obelisk’, which was fun in itself.)

Nix realized someone was approaching, and slowed down to see--he quickly recognized Susquehanna and grinned. He waved cheerfully and replied, "Hi, Hanna! I'll go home after I go see that weird obelisk thing." A gesture in that direction, unneeded as it was, was added to make sure there was no question what the boy's intentions were.

"So, you wanna come along, right? Something that strange just needs to be investigated," Nix accompanied with by miming a magnifying glass briefly. "And that's better with a friend along, right?"

He started moving again, without really waiting for confirmation--Nix was confident he'd be followed either way. "I'm gonna lick it!" he declared with a big grin, and stuck out his tongue.

"Course I'm gonna lick it!" Nice confirmed happily, bounding forward all the while. He felt like Hanna thought he meant with his real tongue...and he thought that was funny enough to not correct.

"You can too, but maybe just poke it with your paddle!" He suggested.


The obelisk wasn't too far away, so before long they were there. "Wow," he said softly, staring at it. "It's so shiny, isn't it? Pretty~" Now that they were close, and apparently alone, his pace slowed down to a walk, and he stared up at it, a hand raised to shield the glare a bit. He was clearly still on his way for a lick, but he was taking his time. "Here I go!" He declared all the same.

This ‘dance’ with Hanna was really entertaining to Nix…clearly, the worried knight had no idea what he really meant to do, and he didn’t want to spoil the moment.

But, alas, he got snagged! “Oof! Hey, not cool!” Nix objected while he wriggled. It was quickly evident that he wasn’t gonna shake the grasp right away, so he decided to “explain” his plan in intricate detail.

And he did that by twisting, giving Hanna a huge grin, then sticking out his tongue… The motion was immediately followed by a much bigger, somewhat ethereal, tongue appearing in front of Nix’s face. He mimed an upward lick motion, and the strange tongue mimicked the gesture, brushing right up Hanna’s face. It was a bit sticky, but Nix was trying to not cause any hurt, so it was about as weak as he could manage the thing.

But still. It was a face-sized tongue licking up the face. That was bound to be shocking, at the very least!

"Ah, maybe that's why you're so salty!" Nix declared playfully, quietly glad that he as he bounded the last small distance to the obelisk, where he stopped, and stared upward for a moment, awed by it.

The moment passed, and Nix stuck out his real tongue again, and gave the tower a great big, magic lick. Not nearly so carefully restrained as he'd done to Susquehanna. He laughed, and said, "Hah. It's smooooo--huh?" His laughing stopped as he frowned at the obelisk, which seemed to be shimmering slightly where he'd licked it.

He leaned forward a little, squinting and peering at it. "What's..." he didn't manage to say anything else before a shimmering tongue, just like the one he'd just made to lick the obelisk, erupted out of the mirrored surface, and licked him right back! The force of it actually lifted him off the ground ever so slightly, and he staggered back, gawking in surprise.

"Woah, it licked me!" he declared, a hand on his face. His eyes remained locked on it, as he watched for other signs of activity...but nothing happened.

While still a bit in shock about getting licked by a pillar, Nix took another couple steps back from the obelisk, still watching it. After a couple seconds more, he felt pretty sure it wasn't gonna do it again, so he turned to face Susquehanna once more.

That the knight was still busy mother henning was, he reflected, possibly a bit annoying, but he actually found it kind of endearing, and was about to say something to that effect, his grin returning, before he was seized by the arm and dragged off.

"Woah, hey!" he protested, flailing a bit. "It was just a lick, who else is gonna investigate--ease up, will ya? I'll walk with ya. No more licking, I promise." He asserted somewhat indignantly, then resumed what he was saying. "Who else is gonna investigate this kinda stuff if not us? We're the ones with magic and stuff...who don't want to eat people!"

“It’s…it’s okay,” Nix replied with a sigh and a nod. “I get it…you’re trying to help, do good, and all that. My parents would be real upset if I disappeared, so, uh, I hope to avoid that. But…” he gestured in the direction of the obelisk they were moving away from, “I just…need to know, ya know?”

He rubbed his neck lightly and pressed on with his justification, “Nobody really tells anybody else anything…at least, they don’t tell me. I mean, I’ve got,” he produced his senshi phone out of nowhere to display it briefly, “This, which has some info, but people are kind of bad about putting more.” The phone got disappeared again. “And it’s not like we have a spy network or anything.” He blinked. “Er. I think.”

He shrugged. “Going and looking is the only way I can feel like I’ve done something. Though this thing is still creepy, it doesn’t look like it’s doing anything right now…”

Nix nodded in reply, and said evenly, "Well, I do share information with a buncha senshis...people like to train with me." He grinned, thinking about the mostly-involuntary training sessions Susquehanna had participated in with him. "And I talk to them...but even with that, it's still all so, uh, scattered, ya know? I'm still in High School, ya know, shouldn't there be someone around who's...the leader, or something, that's not me?"

He shrugged again, deciding to let this whole trouble go. "Ah, whatever," he declared with a sigh, then grinned at Hanna, before continuing, "It happens, I guess. You should join me for some training or building hopping again some time! It'll be fun." As an afterthought, he added, "And if enough people do it, maybe we'll suddenly find ourselves organized!"

And maybe one of these days he'd track down the more powerful knights and senshis, and get them to go along with his antics.

Somehow.