prompt
Prompt 6: There's something on the roof. It has no energy signature, so it can't possibly be a youma or any powered vigilante, but something's on the roof. It sounds like it's clopping around. If you go outside and investigate, there is a deer on the roof. A fully sized deer, staring down at you. The moment you blink, or look away, it's gone; if you investigate further you will find that there are tracks left in the snow atop the roof--but none around the house. It looks like it just showed up there--and just disappeared.
Ever since he'd become Calaverite, he hadn't really liked going out as Ivory. As far as he understood it, there wasn't any need for his civilian life, anymore.
Since he had no home, he was allowed to stay in the Negaverse barracks, but to stay in Negaspace safely, you had to be powered. Anytime he was relaxing in his room, he was Calaverite. And when his general brought him to the city, it was to work. To be able to drain energy and take starseeds, he needed to be Calaverite. Ivory couldn't do those things. If he wanted to be able to run fast and jump high and push people around without them being able to do so to him, he needed to be Cala.
There wasn't anything Ivory could do that Calaverite couldn't do better.
Despite this, Ivory found himself meandering slowly along the walkway where several Christmasy-themed winter shops had taken up residence. It was early morning, with the sun hanging low in the sky, but still easily visible above the horizon through a fog of grey clouds.
'It was daylight,' his general had said. 'Calaverite can't be allowed to run amok so brazenly. If you want to go to the city, it will have to be as Ivory.'
Ivory hadn't wanted to risk not being allowed to go at all, so he had begrudgingly agreed. He liked going out as Cala because Cala could take things and not be stopped, like all of the discounted winter lights and ornaments that still hung in some of the shop windows, or the treats that were about to go out of season until next winter... He certainly couldn't afford to pay for any of those things. And all it would take to stop Ivory was anyone putting one hand on him to hold him off.
Ivory was weak and frail.
But he couldn't help going after something when he wanted it.
So he entered one of the shops, placed an order for a sweet, warm, chocolaty mint coffee drink, and was all too pleased when it was passed across the counter for him. The woman at the register told him a price, but Ivory ignored it. He wasn't sure if it was the sweetly innocent look on his face as he took a sniff of the drink, or maybe he looked raggedy enough that she'd suspected he had no money, but either way, she didn't try to stop him as he stepped away with the coffee.
It smelled really good, and it was warm as it slid down his throat, with just the tiniest hint of crisp bite from the mint. It was kind of like drinking a chocolate mint patty, he thought, and that at least cut out all the work of chewing.
As he dipped down a side street to avoid unnecessary contact with other people, a very near clopping sound from above startled his so badly that he nearly tripped, and he dropped his drink in the process, with warm liquid splattering out all over the ground in front of him, leaving a brown indent in the snow.
And angry hiss tore out of his throat, and Ivory's glare whipped up toward the sound. He couldn't see anything from this vantage point, but Calaverite didn't need to stay on the ground.
He powered up in a flurry of chaos energy, all promises of not powering up in the daylight easily forgotten with his frustration. He whipped up the side of the building, clearing it in a single jump and swinging his legs over the railing as he landed- And came face-to face with a large, four-legged reindeer?
It snorted, shook out it's fur, and took a pace backward, the clopping echoing as it stepped.
Calaverite stared. He had never seen- Not in real life, anyway. Of course he heard all the Christmas stories, but he'd never really seen for real a reindeer standing right in front of him!
He took in a quick breath, and immediately started fumbling through his pockets for his tablet pen so that he could- He didn't know, maybe tell someone to come catch it, or something! He could take it to the barracks and have a large, clopping pet that he could ride around Negaspace, and everyone would be so jealous of him!
But when he glanced back, the creature was gone, leaving only its hoofprints on the roof. Of course Cala searched and searched for it, following whatever trail he could, but there was hardly one to follow, and he eventually had to give up.
It would have been so cool to have such a badass mount to ride into battle, but instead he had no reindeer and no chocolaty mint coffee drink...
[WC: 792]
