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 Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 4:18 pm
Quote: Predatory Puddles (6) : Summer rains aren’t uncommon, so finding puddles dotting your path isn’t in itself particularly surprising or abnormal. However, as you walk past them, you feel the sensation of being watched, like eyes are on you. If you look into the puddles, you don’t see your reflection--nor the reflection of anything familiar to you. Instead, you see strange, decayed buildings, and odd, rotting plants. Something is watching you through the puddles, but before you can investigate, between one blink and the next, it’s all gone. When you look back, the puddles are oddly non-reflective, and then in the next blink, they’re all gone. The feeling of being watched doesn’t fade, though.
Truthfully, Sapphirine couldn’t remember the last time she was out in a rainstorm. Oh, maybe there would be a thunderstorm soon and she could sit by the window and eat some soup...yes. Soup sounded good.
The hair on the back of her neck prickled and the corrupt swung her head up, like an animal scenting danger but still...there was nothing. There was the feeling of another chaos signature...a strange one but...that wasn’t...something to freak out about…
But...as she looked into one of the puddles near her feet, she almost screamed, seeing a horrible sight that looked as though it were right out of a horror movie. It made her skin crawl and the fact that she still felt like something was out there. Something was watching her…
Lifting her arms, the corrupt shouted her attack without really thinking. “Fluke Slap!” Whoever was watching her should perhaps just...watch their own back instead.Indigo_Plateau Fluke Slap! (Kind of like this. owo) Sapphirine raises both of her hands and brings them crashing back down to her sides. When the attack is started, it causes a fluke made of senshi magic energy which comes crashing down on an opponent, who is within ten feet of Sapphirine, stunning them for fifteen seconds. This attack can be used twice per battle. The attack may leave the recipient with a headache, or mild disorientation.
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Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 6:53 am
If Janggunite could have his way, he’d still be in his bunk in Negaspace. It was tiny and cramped and there were virtually no comforts in it, but it did have a bed, where he could lay silently in pitch-black darkness and be mostly unbothered for about twenty hours a day. His body had begun to protest when he moved, underused muscles rapidly growing out of touch with simple activity, despite the “boost” from being constantly powered.
’It’s not healthy,’ Other agents told him.
To which Janggunite could only think, <******** obviously.’
Nothing about any of this was healthy, and he wasn’t so stupid or so oblivious that all reason had suddenly escaped him regarding what he should be doing to maintain his physique and complexion and general well-being. He’d cared extensively about those things not too long ago. But this body was barely even his, anymore. Why on earth should he be bothered with what happened to it.
His previously bouncy curls were limp, greasy, and coming very near to looking like mats atop his head. His cheeks were gaunt and his skin was ashy. The finned frills to either side of his face were brittle and dry from dehydration. Lips cracked. Eyes dull. Posture slouched.
He’d cared before because it was his career and passion to look good and to make things that helped other people look good. He was a craftsman. He’d dedicated so much of his life to it, only to have it yanked away.
Half-youma did not have careers or passions or lives. They were just Negaverse slaves.
It was too much work for Janggunite to do anything about his hair or his skin or personal hygiene now. He just wanted to sleep forever. And if he was left alone for long enough, he would.
There were, unfortunately, others around that harassed him whenever it was convenient for them. Janggunite’s General was naggy, and always too-prepared to yank him around to gather energy or do paperwork or perform menial chores- Janggunite was a grown ******** man, these tasks were beneath him.
Except apparently not.
It took a matter of seconds for his General to summon him and then deposit him very unceremoniously in the city and away from his bed. Janggunite couldn’t get back unless someone else brought him. He didn’t have the ability for all that, though he couldn’t even count the number of times it had been impressed on him that if he would ’just try,’ it wasn’t like it would take him long to gain that ability.
Too much effort, though, as far as he was concerned. He couldn’t be bothered. It was too hard to gather the motivation.
So he was just stuck in the city until someone felt like retrieving him. Down a dark, empty, dirty alley dotted with potholes filled from an apparent recent rain. Janggunite’s excessively long tail dragged as he trudged through the remains of wet garbage and dense mud tracks left behind by garbage trucks picking up dumpsters. The delicate filaments of the petals at its tip ripped as they snagged on miscellaneous debris. He hardly bothered to notice.
Strange shapes flickered across the puddles’ reflections as he trod, but his steps didn’t falter, and the ripples chased away any visions.
An unfamiliar discomfort nagged at him… Something there or an uncomfortable place? But it melded almost seamlessly among the other discomforts. He didn’t want to be here or be like this, and the worst of the strangeness felt numb, muted. Janggunite couldn’t even be bothered to identify that there was someone near, an aura that he could’ve picked up, if he’d bothered to be alert for it.
He stepped from the alley and onto the dimly-lit sidewalk in time for what sounded suspiciously like a teenage girl to start screaming, which, despite being annoying, Janggunite supposed was understandable. He would’ve been startled too-
Except the screaming was accompanied by senshi magic, and as he glanced up, he distinctly recognized a black bodice, long hair, corrupted cracks.
So really the girl, of the same faction as him, had no business shrieking and causing a scene and using her attacks against him. Except that was all in the matter of an instant. Janggunite didn’t have the chance to say or do anything to stop her, and the magic crashed into him with dizzying speed. It shoved back at him, like a physical force, and he dipped to the ground, long claws scraping at the concrete as he steadied himself from toppling over.
As his widened pink eyes scraped over his surroundings for where the girl had gone, his lips pulled back, exposing sharp teeth in an offended and agitated hiss. Like the immediacy of her spell, his ire spiked fast and hard, like lightning that ignited his muscles to action.
Janggunite didn’t have the wherewithal to mentally process that he was throwing himself at her, arm out and claws extended to rake at the first thing he could reach.
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Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 2:33 pm
Oh...oh s**t. Her attack seemed to have hit the owner of the chaos aura, and it was some kind of a youma...mostly youma? Something. Hybrid nightmare creature. Sapphirine managed to get her arms up to protect her face from the claws and she felt a white hot heat sliding down one of them, causing her to hiss in pain.
“Holy s**t! I’m sorry! Don’t attack me! ********!” She stumbled backwards, tripping over her own feet...or maybe her hair. She wasn’t quite sure. Either way, she ended up falling right into one of the puddles on the ground, and a shudder that didn't have much to do with how wet the puddle was but more for the fact that she had seen something in the water not a moment ago and she was half afraid that she would fall through it now.
What if her butt was just hanging in a portal to another dimension or something...or…
God. She was being stupid. “I...I freaked out. I thought you. I thought something was watching me and I panicked, okay? God, your claws are sharp...what the Hell…” Struggling to get up, Sapphirine gave the puddle one last kick...just to be sure...it didn’t exist any longer.
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Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2021 2:58 pm
Don't. Attack her? As if she hadn't been the one to strike first. A low and rumbling growl slid heedless from his throat, and Janggunite's body shifted sidelong, instinctively circling to another side of her, where her defenses were weaker. His crests flared, tail dragging in long and lazy loops behind him as he observed her through wild pink eyes. He wanted to strike. She had cast her magic on him, and he wanted to strike.
She'd fallen away from him, splashing sloppily into one of the puddles on the ground. Now would be the time, when she wasn't even on her feet.
The corrupt had apologized, though nothing about it seemed particularly sincere, and had explained herself to some degree. She was just a young girl, surely at least a decade younger than Janggunite, himself. He shouldn't be so offended as to try to hurt her, probably. His body was still tense as he eyed the senshi, and Janggunite couldn't say with any certainty what he would've done if he hadn't been... like this. But it likely wouldn't have been to try and rake her down with his claws.
He stayed to her side, barely more than arm's length away from her. "Are you always so paranoid?" He hissed, brows furrowed and lips still curled back aggressively. "You struck me. You should've expected that whatever you hit would hit back."
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Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 4:54 pm
“No, not always. Not often either it just…” Sapphirine wiped the back of her fuku off, grimacing as she realized that her hair was soaked with the evil puddle water. Whatever. It would dry. “I swear something was watching me...looking at me, and I thought you were some...puddle monster, and I realize saying it out loud makes me sound like an utter and complete moron but…”
The senshi spread her arms helplessly. “The mind plays stupid tricks on you, I guess...I’m really sorry that I attacked you...I panicked, and I didn’t...think. Or wait to see what was there. I knew...I mean. I felt you...I don’t know…”
Sapphirine rubbed her face in some frustration and blew out a sigh. “Are you okay? I’ve heart my attack can be a real b***h. Especially when you weren’t expecting it...I’m really sorry.” And thankful that he hadn’t been some evil puddle monster...that...would have been rather awful.
“Ah...I’m Sapphirine...not that I think you’ll want to know other than to write a report...but...yeah.” She held out her hand, giving a tentative smile, hoping that maybe...this wouldn’t go into a report.
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 10:19 am
Puddle.
Monster.
Janggunite's entire body was stone still as he stared at her. Rationally, he had to recognize that there was no reason for him to be offended. He was a monster. Looked like one. Probably smelled like one. Had no idea what his aura would feel like to anyone who could sense it. The scaly tail and bright pink ear fins lent themselves to something aquatic: puddly. Puddle monster was probably an apt description for what he was, and if any kind of creature was coming at him, he would reasonably expect to do what she had done. Scream and fight. He shouldn't be upset at her. It didn't make sense. It wasn't fair.
But nothing was fair. She'd assaulted him for existing and then proceeded to insult him by implying he was less than human and then wanted to-? What? Be friends? Reconcile with a few half-hearted words? Make light of his ******** disgusting body? The only movement from him was slitted pink irises dropping to stare at her outstretched hand before returning to her face.
She was a moron. Her words, not his. His words were that she was hasty, inconsiderate, rude, insulting. Why was everyone in the Negaverse so ill-mannered?
Janggunite could not even fathom the possibility of wasting one more second on her. Could not comprehend expending the effort to explain what a foul idiot she was and how he wanted absolutely nothing from someone who bumbled around assaulting anything that looked funny and then expecting them to just be fine with it. His lips pursed, brows furrowing as he glared at her, then whipped around, the lash of his tail and sharp twist of his boots sending a spray of chilly droplets out from the puddle beneath him before he strode away from her.
She was not the only one who could be rude and inconsiderate.
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