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 Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 12:41 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.
Two of his sons and his daughter-in-law introduced him to the concept; his third son, the oldest, remained suspiciously tight lipped on the subject. More recently, his wife took her first steps into the magical war as a low level knight — a Page, apparently — named Paradise.
Beau accepted these things, and he recognized the possibility that he, too, would find his way into the conflict. Even if he had no magic, he would do whatever was necessary to protect his family, if given the chance.
So when he glanced down into a puddle one evening on their way home from a nice dinner out, he was a bit unsettled but not surprised to see an image not of this world staring back at him — withered buildings and rotten plants.
He got the sense that something was watching him and stopped for a closer look.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 9:00 am
Claire was busy talking about the latest book she was reading. She didn’t mind that her husband wasn’t paying full attention. She didn’t even mind if he didn’t bother pretending to pay attention. Just as long as she didn’t look absolutely insane, talking to herself about a murder mystery that was really not a murder mystery because it was so obvious from the very beginning that it was the sister-in-law who did it because she was jealous, but it was annoying that the book tried to make it seem like someone else could have been the murderer but it was really just the sister-in-law, as if nearly all murder mystery books didn’t have the same general method. Still, she enjoyed reading them because maybe one would surprise her.
But when Beau stopped, she did as well, catching a glimpse of what he must have seen to come to a stop on the sidewalk.
“What was that?” she asked him, giving his hand a squeeze as she peered closer at the puddle. There was something there… and it felt like something was watching them, but… maybe she was just imagining things? She had been told she had an overactive imagination. And now she had magical non-magic and a pretty dress, so that had to count for something, right?
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 9:52 am
Beau would pay more attention if there didn’t appear to be another world, or another reality, visible through a puddle. He stared as long as he could, taking in the details, but could only hold out so long before the need to blink became imperative.
In the second it took for his eyes to close and rapidly reopen, the image in the puddle had disappeared.
“Some sort of magic, I expect,” he said.
Which would have been a ridiculous thing to say if he wasn’t aware that such things existed.
Perhaps it was ridiculous anyway. At some indeterminate point in time, the world had gone mad in ways he had not been aware of as a naval officer.
Around them, people continued to walk. After another blink, Beau discovered that the puddles themselves had disappeared as well, leaving their path down the sidewalk completely unobstructed.
Strange, and somewhat concerning, if only because he couldn’t be sure what they’d actually seen.
Then he heard a shout from several yards away, and a low grow that pointed to something even more concerning than magic puddles.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 10:54 am
Sure enough, when Claire blinked, the image in the puddle was gone. As were the puddles. She frowned at the strange shift in magic, because although she couldn’t exactly feel what was going on just yet, she knew there was likely one of those creatures lurking in the shadows.
“Youma?” she glanced up at her husband, since she knew he didn’t need a lesson on what was going on in the city. Peter and Paris and Chris had told them all about it years ago, and for some reason they decided to give their children the benefit of the doubt and helped them to prepare for whatever they would face, rather than forbidding them to try and go out to fight.
Because she knew if she had magical powers, she wouldn’t want to be stopped either, and would find any possible way to help.
Which she wanted to do now. She tugged at Beau’s hand for him to follow her to the alley, because it was important that she keep her identity secret, for her family’s sake. And once she was sure she was hidden, she changed into Paradise.
“Okay, I’m going to take this brick and go out and fight it,” she insisted, picking up the large blunt object to haul up over her shoulder and stalked back out onto the street to go find what people were yelling about.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 12:51 pm
Youma, indeed.
Beau caught sight of it just as he and Claire turned into the alley. It was bear-like, with mangy fur that appeared missing in clumps, except for the heavy ruff around its neck like a mane. The arms and legs were strangely elongated for the creature it resembled, though the claws and the vicious teeth were just as concerning.
While Claire transformed, Beau peered around the corner to watch its rampage. The youma swiped at whomever it drew close to, ripping a large canvas bag away from a young woman who couldn’t get clear of it quickly enough. Screams filled the air as people ran, tripping over one another in their attempts to get as far away from the youma as possible. Several shouts of “Monster!” ripped through the night.
“Maybe distract it so these people have a chance to escape, but don’t fight it outright. It’s quite large, ” Beau warned his wife.
He paused to watch her, not at all surprised by her willingness to face such a ferocious beast.
“Your dress is lovely, darling,” he complimented her, following her back out so that he could assist people away from the area.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 2:29 pm
Paradise paused, to turn and beam up at her husband, shifting the brick in her hands so she could glance down at her dress herself.
“Oh, thank you! You’re such a charmer. Always saying sweet things to me. That’s why I fell for you, you know,” she smiled up at him and it seemed as though she was going to open her mouth to say something else, but the shouts and screams of the people behind her called her back to the task at hand.
“It is rather large, yes,” she frowned, trying to decide how best to handle it. “It’s really nice to have magical super strength, you know. This brick barely weighs like anything,” she said as she hurled it towards the youma, effectively getting its attention and preventing it from swiping at another screaming civilian.
“Well, I think it sees us now. Dear, would you like to direct the civilians on that side of the street? I’m going to find another rock,” she explained, glancing around the alley behind them to see what else she had to work with. Meanwhile, the youma seemed like it had changed interests from the screaming civilians to the Page.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 5:44 pm
“Of course, darling,” Beau agreed.
Claire — Paradise now, he reminded himself (there truly was not a more perfect name for her) — might seem flighty to most people, and she certainly had her moments, but Beau knew it was at least partially an act. He always found both her resourcefulness and her confidence to be remarkable; she was more than capable of facing a monster head on if that was what she chose to do.
He hoped she didn’t. This time, at least. She could defend innocent civilians as long as she could hold out, but even Beau would need assistance taking something as large as this youma down. Their priority should be to evacuate any would-be victims from the area, and then stall long enough for help to arrive.
Beau got started on the victims, helping an old woman toddle off before guiding a screaming teenager to safety. At every roar from the beast, he would look over his shoulder to check on his wife, but she seemed to be handling things well enough. Apparently, litter was more of a problem in Destiny City than he thought, because there was no shortage of things to throw at the youma.
Such as an old, rusty… something. The very harassed looking businessman Beau was helping almost tripped over it. Upon closer inspection, Beau determined it to be some sort of weather instrument.
Once the businessman was well on his way and the area seemed clear for the time being, Beau took hold of the weather instrument to get it out of the way. (Unless Paradise needed something else to throw. The instrument was quite solid and could potentially result in some blunt force damage if thrown hard enough.)
It was with this old, rusty weather instrument in his hands that Beau felt something like a bolt of electricity zoom through him, and it was as if a door that had been sealed shut for decades finally unlocked, slowly opening on creaking hinges.
Because of course he was.
Ah, well. Better late than never, he supposed.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 6:19 pm
Paradise did what she could to keep the youma distracted and away from the civilians. She found that she could jump higher than she ever thought possible, and didn’t even break a sweat! And she could throw rocks and other things with ease. And she bet she could probably kick really well too, but she didn’t want to accidentally ruin her dress.
But then she could feel the sudden pulse of magic, and Paradise gasped in excitement, quickly turning around to see who just powered up to help her.
Except she didn’t have to ask to know.
“Oh!! You look so handsome,” Paradise absolutely gushed, quickly making her way back over to the Jupiter Page who was undeniably her husband. “This is so exciting! Oh, we should take care of the youma!” she remembered, turning back to see what was going on with the creature. Thankfully, most of the civilians seemed to have run off.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 6:35 pm
“I don’t think exciting is the word I’d use for it, but… it’s certainly something.”
Empyrean gave himself just enough time to observe the change in clothing — his suit and tie had been replaced with a green tunic and dark boots — before returning his attention to the youma, which roared loudly, apparently distressed that it was currently being ignored.
Or perhaps it was angry that it no longer had an ample supply of humans to go after.
“Shall we?” he asked his wife.
He approached the youma from the left, expecting Paradise to come in from the opposite side so that they might trap it with a pincer move. (Look, he was improvising here, and he probably wasn’t doing a very good job, but he’d been retired for quite a few years now and he was out of practice, not to mention completely inexperienced with things like youma.)
(Did he count as retired now, he wondered. This war was different than all the others he’d faught, but it was still a war.)
Just then, a young woman came around the corner, talking on her cell phone, paying no mind to where she was going until she was nearly face to face with the bear youma.
“Ahhhhh! A bear!” she screamed.
The youma roared again and moved as if to swipe at her, so Empyrean heaved his weather instrument and threw it as hard as he could at the youma’s head.
It made impact with a loud clang.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 6:53 pm
After being married for forty years, and knowing each other for even longer, Paradise didn’t need a lot of instruction from her husband on what his plans were. It was like a dance, almost. Trying to surround an enemy and attack it when it least expected it.
While Empyrean went left, Paradise absolutely went right, because it would be stupid to give it two targets.
Well, the young woman with the cell phone certainly wasn’t a factor, but that was okay. It was just another distraction so Empyrean could throw his weapon at it, and Paradise could give it a swift kick in the rear.
She wasn’t sure what caused the youma to suddenly turn into dust, but it certainly hadn’t been as horribly ferocious as it could have been, and Paradise was just glad no one seemed to have gotten hurt.
Which meant she didn’t feel guilty practically skipping up to her husband with her hands in the air for high fives.
“‘Exit, pursued by a bear,’” she laughed, a stupid little Shakespearean quote that would make no sense to most people. “Only not, because we beat the bear!” She was clearly proud of both of them.
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 7:05 pm
Well… that solved that.
A part of Empyrean — the young, virile man that still lurked in the depths of his being, looking for a fight — almost regretted that it ended so soon. The youma was there, roaring through the night, and then it was gone, dusted by a swift kick between its oddly proportioned legs.
The more logical part of him was glad to see it gone. It could’ve done them both harm if it had the chance, not to mention any other hapless person to wander around the corner. (That poor young woman dropped her phone in her haste to get away as fast as possible, tripping her way out of sight.)
“That was perfect, darling,” Empyrean said, returning his wife’s double high five. “I didn’t need to become this at all. You could have done that on your own.”
He paused for a moment to marvel over her. She truly was one-of-a-kind.
He was a lucky man.
Seconds later, he sighed and looked down at himself again. “I don’t suppose Peter will be too happy about this.”
Empyrean could imagine his youngest son moaning and groaning dramatically, “Why, universe? Why?”
Why, indeed.
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Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2021 9:45 am
“No, this is wonderful,” she smiled brightly, excited that she was able to spend time with her husband doing something new. And maybe a little dangerous, but that was part of the adventure, right?
“Oh, I suppose we should warn them that you’re involved in this too. Unless you want to keep it a secret? It’s only fair because they didn’t tell us for quite some time. Can you imagine? Having to do this without telling anyone? But now we’re both knights,” she sighed dreamily. After finally allowing herself to be the subject of Beau's affection, she'd always imagined him a knight in shining armor, but she supposed a rugged knight of Jupiter was good too.
“You’re not going to tell your mother, are you? You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was somehow involved in all of this, too,” Paradise half joked, but really, there was nothing Nana couldn’t do, even in her old age.
She looked at him thoughtfully for a few moments and then said, "You know, I think this outfit would look even more amazing if you grew out a beard. Just a thought!"
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Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:30 pm
Empyrean grimaced.
“Sorry to disappoint you, darling, but I don’t think a beard would suit me.”
As for the rest of it… He looked over himself for a while longer, flexing his fingers, clenching and unclenching his hand, shifting his weight from one foot to the next, testing the power that flowed through him. He couldn’t use magic yet, but it was almost as if he could feel it somewhere within him, waiting, an untapped well he was itching to access.
For the experience, of course. He’d spent most of his life dealing with war; he didn’t really want to be involved in another one.
Empyrean looked at his wife in her beautiful, flowing gown. He thought of his children risking their lives for this, years of their adulthood, adolescence, and childhood (in Peter’s case) sacrificed to monsters and mayhem. If he could do something about that, so that someone else’s child would not have to take the same risks, perhaps he would be grateful that this happened to him.
If he could protect his wife, and his own children…
Although, something told him they didn’t need his protection. Not anymore.
Empyrean focused on the power with himself and allowed it to dissipate, so that his green tunic and dark boots were once again replaced with a suit and tie. He waited for his wife to do the same, then took her hand, giving it a squeeze as he pulled her close, placing a kiss along her temple.
“Let’s keep this between ourselves for now,” Beau decided.
And to think, all this started because of a strange puddle. As they took their leave, Beau looked for more but found none, and couldn’t help but wonder if the two events were related at all.
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