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.
The day had been hot enough that even into the evening, steam still steeped from the warm rain filled pools of water that seemed to litter every available surface, even the flat ones. Even the ones which to Prehnites eye, should have run off easily into the earth. Nothing so shiny should have clung to the concrete paved walking paths, and yet the puddles had persisted.
He'd ignored it all, initially, the rain, the puddles. He'd been busy enough in the park that the oddness of the scene hadn't registered, even as the rain had drizzled to an end, it hadn't hindered his progress.
A grouping of energy swirled in his palm, while an unconscious, partly damp man lay across an iron wrought bench. Living, breathing, proof of his successful efforts. All of it made easier because the park was his favorite haunt, ever since he'd begun his time with the Negaverse. The layout remained familiar, and made the annoyance of the humidity and rain negligible as he'd traversed favored pathways.
Until he'd stepped into one of the puddles directly. The shock of a brief glimpse of something otherworldly. Something that lay well beyond the puddles, immediately had Prehnite flashing the stored lifeforce into the space beyond, and drawing his serrated trowels. Suddenly feeling hunted and watched like he hadn't before. Even as the image scattered in the ripples the splash had made, vanished into nothing more than plain old water.
Vanished into n o t h i n g a t a l l...
Prehnite felt his pulse spike at the sudden absence of something that had been there before, tangible, real, the puddles were no mirage. Yet they were there and gone again in an instance of errant disturbance. He held himself tense on a blades edge, spoke out into the air around himself, just to make sure he was well and truly alone....
"Whoever's there...I'll give you till the count of ten." he left what would happen once he'd reached ten purposefully vague. "One...two........three..........." weapons readied at his hip, clenched in white gripped fists, he couldn't shake the feel of being watched nor the way it made the hairs across the back of his neck stand on end, despite the oppressive humidity of the still air.
Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:46 pm
Anser noticed the puddles as she walked on her patrol, and they immediately caught her attention.
She knew enough from chemistry class; it had been warm enough throughout the day that they should have started evaporating by now. Or, what was that other word? Sublimation. Wait, no, that wasn't right, that was for when snow went straight into gas--
Okay, at least, they shouldn't have been so everywhere. Either way, it distracted her from her intention and she wandered over to one in curiosity, looking within it.
The sight made her reel back in horror.
The ******** was that? She went to look again, but it was gone, and she found herself unable to observe the rotted buildings and the decaying plants any further, instead taken over by the sensation that someone, somewhere, was watching her. Considering that s**t she saw in the puddles, she made the immediate and obviously correct observation that it was definitely some foul s**t the Negaverse was doing. She growled under her breath.
And then, she heard a counting around a bend.
Negaverse.
"I don't need ten!" she barked back, strutting over and rubbing her arms as if she was rolling up her sleeves. "Stop watching me, you cretin!"
Cretin. Okay, no, now she sounded like a old-timey comic book. Redo. If an opportunity came again.
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 1:00 pm
Prehnite flinched, his head whipped round to the source of the responding voice. Then he froze, and dropped his guard. Unsure as to what exactly, in the name of all that existed, he was looking at. A goose downed, be-gandered Senshi - the aura screamed white moon, seeped power, and yet the visual that accompanied the signature simply didn't match.
"A child...I'm jumping at the shadows of children now." Prehnite huffed, the words clipped. How low had he fallen that her presence alone had him tensed up like he was facing down a rampaging youma. Prehnite almost felt shamed at the action, drawing a terse hiss of breath while he turned to face her fully.
"Go away little moon. This isn't a fight you want..." he'd expected something far more fearsome than this, and he still felt the creeping tingle of something other. Unshakeable. Even as he stared at the likely source. "and I wasn't staring at you until this moment. Though now that I am? I'm telling you pack up your feathers and fly away." his tone was as dismissive as his motions, waving the Senshi off as though she were a mere nuisance.
It was always so uncomfortable, all the Senshi he'd ever faced had always seemed so young.
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 1:29 pm
Of course, putting his guard down meant he was an ample opportunity for Anser, who was absolutely ready to beat him up the moment she was given the opportunity. His not having his weapons immediately drawn definitely helped that--
She still felt the strange sense and assumed it was from him, but the moment he opened his mouth, she didn't care what the hell the strange sense was from.
"A child!" She nearly squeaked her indignance as she balled her hands into fists. "Little Moon! The ******** does that mean!" She had heard reference to white moon, but she didn't swear herself by it. Anser was a star, first of all, and her brother was a comet, and also, nothing about her was in any way little, she was going to beat his mocking face into the pavement for watching her-- "I'm seventeen!"
Well, close enough to count, anyway--
"You fly away you mop-headed a**!" She wasn't sure it was better, but Negaverse didn't have an obvious sphere other than gaudy a** ugly military garb-- "Mothers Geese!"
She nearly flew at him, fists swinging right for him.
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Super Sailor Scout Attack:"Mothers Geese!" Geese are known for being great guards. Anser says her attack name and a couple ethereal goslings appear in front of her, honking. After the gosling honks out its warning, Anser and other allies within a five foot radius find that their reflexes are enhanced, allowing them to either better fight back physically or put some distance between themselves and whatever danger there may be. (Usage: Twice per battle Duration: 20 seconds Range: 5ft)
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 3:25 pm
"My apologies, I should have noticed you're an indignant, ornery, loud assed teenager." Seventeen? So old enough to think she could play with actual adults, near grown enough that Prehnite wouldn't feel overly bad about clipping her wings. Noisy little goose didn't need her flight feathers. He'd thought it'd be a simple enough task to manage her - and then the honking geese started - and Prehnite balked at the sound.
Between one blink and the next she was on him. F a s t - The little bird Senshi was fast, suddenly a quickstep ahead of him.
The shouted attack had been startling enough, a honking of flocked geese from nowhere, and Prehnite expected some magical monstrosity, some emotionally draining thing, and instead he got a punch in the face by a speedy little girl with exceptional reflexes.
"With a penchant for nursery rhymes, how quaint." he spat as he took the punch, let it stagger him onto his back foot, and then swiped for her midsection in retaliation. He knew it would bruise and bleed. Could feel the swelling across his cheek already, and now? Now he officially didn't care what she was, if it was a fight she wanted, he'd give it to her.
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:50 pm
Oh, Anser did want a fight. She wanted to fight everyone with Chaos energy she saw because she never quite learned her lesson, or perhaps she did but knew she couldn't let their presence continue or more people would end up like her brother or like the dead and drained people she had seen in the streets or like--
Still on her fast reflexes, she stepped slightly out of the way and felt the swipe scrape against her side. Somehow, she didn't care. Fights with evil always resulted in a little bruising. That was how it went in the comics. Made sense it'd be that way in real life. "Quaint! You Negas never know what's actually coming to you. ******** villains never do."
She swung her leg up and attempted to boot him right in the side.
"Get out of here!"
Anser started watching for when she would next have the opportunity for her buff--
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 11:24 pm
“And you contradict yourself with every breath! You are absolutely a child-“ the words snarled. His emerald gaze tracked her, frustration laden in it as she was still just a bit quicker, but she was close now. Had to get in close to do any damage.
So Prehnite released one of his trowels from his hand, the tinkling clang loud against the sound of the scuffle as metal hit pavement, and he twisted with her kick towards his side. If it landed so be it - he’d take another hit for the sake of the grab. The wheeze of breath that accompanied his attempt at grappling her by the leg, and yanking her off balance - “This isn’t a Disney movie little goose. I won’t break into song before I slice you open, or flee just because you lay into me a little.”
I don’t want to kill you. he should have said, but it’d have been a partial lie. Not wishing to kill someone, and not killing them - were two entirely different things. It helped little that every word from her grated on his nerves.
A Villain, she’d called him a villain, a nega baddie, and the absolute absurdity of it all was a goad. Was this all the opposition bred? Self destructive, suicidal, c h i l d r e n. His own side was no better, in some ways harsher by far, but at least that harshness taught them caution.
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 11:36 pm
Anser found her leg grappled and grabbed and she couldn't help the way she growled at him, spinning her body hard in response as a way to yank herself out of his grip.
"Don't you think I ******** know that?" She snarled. "I see what you do. You eat ******** souls. Also," she snickered, "I hate Disney."
Well, except for Marvel. Mostly. She preferred indie comics, actually. More interesting. More diversity in stories.
Whether she had successfully gotten out of his grip or not, she suddenly pulled herself from her thoughts and swung for another punch.
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:26 am
“So you’re angry-“ at them, at their treatment of the city and what they took to fuel the never ending machine of their war. He was bone weary for the idea of it all on her behalf, could understand her disdain even if the policy had changed - it wasn’t so long ago that people had forgotten that starseeding had once been the norm, and was still common amongst the older ranks - those who’d come from before.
“Which gives you the right to behave stupidly?” And Prehnite tightened his hold, locked his elbow around her black heeled ankle and held fast with his free hand, even as she writhed in his grasp like a serpent. He wondered that she had no backup nearby. It seemed a waste. He’d always assumed that was why Senshi had courts to begin with, so they died less heedlessly.
Sympathizing with her rage did not endear him to her plight, he didn’t often tolerate tantrums well from others. “How it is, that you can hate something you personify.” The irony that she disliked Disney when she looked as if she’d walked out from one of their latest live action remakes.
The words hissed through grit teeth, curling his shoulder in against her furious punch in an attempt to save his face, the hit driven by anger had him seeing static through a bloom of new pain - loosed his grip ever so slightly around her leg - but not on the trowel gripped in his other hand - tilting the handle so one serrated edge pressed against his forearm, and the other the soft flesh clutched in his grasp. Prehnite rolled his injured shoulder, and with that motion - yanked down with the blade.
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:38 am
This captain's words honestly had her seeing red, but it was also nothing particularly new to her. His behaviour was a mirror of all the mocking Negaverse she had met before, and every single one she would beat into the pavement if she could. Right to be stupid? No. Of course not.
"When you live your entire life stuck in an underground war driven by people who eat souls and create monsters," she hissed, still remembering that moment when Ignacio was found laying on the ground outside of the accursed "school" whose grounds still stood when she was so young she wasn't even yet attending Knightside, "this isn't stupid. It's making sure you don't ******** up anyone else." Like it ******** up Anser.
Like it had ******** up her brother.
The concept of personifying Disney honestly would have made her laugh if she wasn't so busy focusing on the way her hand reverberated after hitting him. And she would do it again if permitted, even as she cried out in pain as she felt the serrated blade tear into her leg.
"Mothers Geese!"
The blast of adrenaline was exactly what she needed. She used the new found energy to ignore the pain temporarily with another hit before she wrenched her body hard, purposely aiming herself toward the ground in hopes of not only knocking him off balance but getting herself out of his grip.
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 5:31 am
It was the first intelligent thing he’d heard from her the entire night, at least the first thing that resonated with any clarity. Though she looked young, acted like a child, she at least acted on merit. Prehnite could have gone on about how the differences between them were far fewer than the moral gap she appeared to paint.
It felt nearly pointless though, to speak of invasions of the past, dead children in barracks -their doing- and dead Senshi -their impossibly young chibi soldiers- all the retaliations that had followed either sides phenomenal ******** ups, how neither should have held any claim to being virtuous simply by the nature with which they conducted their operations.
All hands that touched power, for whichever cause, always came away bloodied.
Prehnite hit the ground with her, far easier to let the force of her blow and gravity take them together than to fight it off when she was so hellbent on making a point. A loud child and her cacophonous herd of geese. He released her as she twisted away, grunt of pain hissed between clenched teeth as he scrabbled against the unforgiving pavement - disappeared his bloodied and discarded weapons entirely into the holding space beyond.
“E n o u g h!”
And then he kicked away from her, a burst of motion and energy he was loath to expend on teleporting a mere ten feet away from the girl. In whatever distaste and annoyance he held for her, there also lay respect.
Fire burst little Senshi, fierce as a goose, maybe she’d outlive all others of her namesake. It was possible that the brat would grow up to become a terrifying princess one day - maybe she’d be a better princess than what they currently had.
“Enough, I’m done -“ Prehnite panted, and everything stung to some degree, pulled a wince across his features as he threw his hands up in obvious surrender. “Go home little goose, and wash the wound out properly. All my blades tend to be edged with some sort of irritant.” A concentrate of Dieffenbachia, his own making etched into whatever magic lingered in their weapons, but he wasn’t about to explain that to her.
“You win…super hero beats the villain again.” Body a slump of resignation, any words of warning or caution died on his tongue. Instead he simply took another step back. Put another inch of distance between them.
He was not going to murder a child tonight. He had his quota. There was no point in fighting when all he would gain was more bruises for his efforts.
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 5:01 pm
Even if Prehnite had gone on, she would have never believed him.
Had she been recruited into the war at an age that might have felt too young for some? Of course. She had awoke before she was even old enough to not have the chibi moniker. Would she have even been needed if Chaos and the Negaverse was not intent on destroying the world they inhabited?
Probably not.
Maybe they'd still have their homeworlds.
Anser growled at him when he told her enough, chomping at the bit to launch at him once again. There was fire in her eyes even as he said he was done, though it started to edge off as the burst of adrenaline accompanying her attack began to fade off. She cursed quietly to herself but still leveled him with a glare that could have set a someone aflame.
"You leave first, villain."
Her skin still felt like it was crawling at the same time her leg burned and bled, and to be frank, she didn't trust him. Her eyes stayed in on him every step away that he took.
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 6:59 pm
Prehnite snorted for that, a rough smirk twisting the corners of his mouth as she stared him down, called him a villain... Smart little Senshi, making him leave first. A rare gem amongst them. He backed away further, keeping his eyes on her just in case she got any ideas
"Clever...Alright, I'm going - I'm gone." and Prehnite snapped his fingers, a misting of aura and evaporated purple haze as he teleported away.
Vanished from the place as quickly and completely as the mysterious puddles that had started the whole unfortunate encounter.
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I adore herrrr - happy to let it fin, grateful for such a good time.
