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 Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2021 8:41 pm
Quote: Prompt 4 (Fear and Feathers): The moon is bright tonight and reflects off of the snowy ground, illuminating everything with an ethereal glow. Destiny City feels almost safe, even at night. The fresh fallen snow seems undisturbed and brings a sense of peace. Only, nothing is ever as good as it seems, and there’s something eerie about it. After a while, it feels like someone--or something--is watching you. In the shadows of the trees, a set of milky eyes watches. Whatever it is, it’s tall and bulky. If you walk quickly, you feel it follow you but once you leave the line of trees, it disappears. If you try to approach it, a great beast will screech at you: a six foot tall snowy white owl takes flight. It may tackle or claw at you, depending on how you approach it, but it will always take flight and disappear in the night. If you choose to attack it, for the next few nights any time you look out your window you will see glowing eyes in the distance--or worse, hear it scratching to get in. Eventually, the temperature rises and the visits stop. For now.
Note: The owl is not a youma but can be used as a battle requirement for a character. It can only be used as a battle if there are two powered characters involved; you cannot write a solo and count this as a battle, and your character must be powered to count this for a battle. If you repeat the prompt with the same character, only one will count for a battle requirement. The owl will not appear to have any magical abilities and seems to simply be a very large, aggressive owl.
“Are you okay?” he asked, frantically looking Vyn over, not sure if the creature had injured Vyn. “I’m so sorry. That was my fault. I must have startled it,” he frowned, clearly upset, and then lowered his arm when the energy shield ran out.
He had a cut across the arm that was keeping Vyn back, wanting to make sure he was behind the shield while his weapon recharged.
“I have no idea what kind of bird that is. I’ll have to look through my books again. I didn’t know they could get that… big.” He would definitely have to tell Andreiya about this. And then they would just both avoid birds forever.
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Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2021 9:13 am
“I’m fine,” Vyn said, but he sounded a little tense, weapon trained on the bird in question.
He didn’t normally shoot at animals; how could anyone be so cruel? But he also hadn’t encountered such a ferocious one before, at least not one that happened to be this large and this maneuverable. It was easily as tall as he was, and it could fly. Not to mention the claws and the sharp beak.
It seemed somewhat intelligent, too, waiting for Aliez’s shield to drop before swooping at them again. Vyn shot at it and winced when it screeched. A part of him felt guilty.
“It’s probably just afraid,” he observed. “It’s not one of those other birds you had trouble with before?”
What was it with birds attacking? What had they done to provoke it? Vyn and Aliez were only out after target practice, enjoying some of the light displays the humans put up as winter decorations. Maybe they were too loud? Maybe they inadvertently disturbed the bird’s territory?
“I don’t want to harm it if we don’t have to, but the size of it alone is dangerous.”
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Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2021 9:31 am
Aliez shook his head. “The birds that attacked me and Andreiya were white and their beaks were shaped differently,” he explained, even as he tried to keep an eye on wherever the bird went. “However, upon further research, I found out that those were known as seagulls and get over-exuberant when it comes to scavenging food, especially from unsuspecting or gullible humans. Or Velencians, in this case,” he admitted a bit morosely.
Vyn was probably right, of course. The bird was probably just afraid of them just as they were afraid of it. Mostly because Aliez was uncertain about its abilities. Was it usually aggressive? He didn’t understand why he had such poor luck with birds, but he didn’t enjoy it.
“I don’t want to harm it, either,” Aliez agreed, carefully taking a step backwards. “If you understand us, we’re sorry to startle you,” he tried calling out to the giant bird, although he doubted it would do much. He tried holding up his hand to show he didn’t intend on hurting it again, but was prepared to use his shield-- whenever it recharged.
When the bird swooped down at them again, Aliez was quick to put up his shield, and winced when the bird was repelled backwards, not because he was injured, but because he really didn’t want to hurt it. “We should retreat,” he suggested to his friend.
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Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2021 9:43 am
“This one certainly isn’t scavenging,” Vyn observed.
It seemed defensive, angry. Vyn wished he knew what they’d done to provoke it so they could endeavor not to do it again. This was his first encounter with such a creature. He thought he might have seen others like it, either out in the woods or in pictures, but those were smaller and therefore much more harmless.
None of them swooped quite so aggressively.
“When your shield drops, I’ll shoot again and we can run,” he said as soon as the shield was in place.
Waiting was a series of tense moments, but the reality of it wasn’t long. By the time Vyn’s blaster had recharged, Aliez’s shield gave out. The creature swooped in with another shriek, threatening them with tearing claws.
Vyn winced again and shouted, “I’m so sorry, we don’t want to hurt you!”
But he shot with well-practiced aim.
“Run!” he said, then didn’t wait for Aliez to follow, grabbing him by the arm to encourage him along.
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Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2021 9:49 am
Aliez winced as well when Vyn shot at the creature, but knew that it wouldn’t really harm it-- just stun it a bit. He stumbled a little when Vyn grabbed onto his arm but took off running with him.
The other creatures they’d encountered hadn’t been aggressive, and there was something very strange about this creature, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on it. There were certainly strange things going on-- or maybe it was all normal for Earth. He wasn’t sure. They were lucky to escape though.
“Thank you, thank you,” he panted as he ran behind Vyn, glancing over his shoulder to make sure they weren’t being followed. Without Vyn being able to so accurately shoot his target, they would have been in a lot of trouble.
“Um… and thank you for… suggesting a different option to the Commodore,” he mumbled, feeling guilty that he’d been so worried before about his inability to use a blaster. After getting his new vambrace, he felt a lot more at ease being able to use the energy shield when needed. It wasn’t offensive, but he thought he and Vyn made a good team.
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Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2021 10:00 am
When they were safe from the creature, Vyn stopped to catch his breath. He glanced around to make sure, but after screeching at them a final time, the bird didn’t seem to follow. He thought he could hear it in the distance, rustling through the trees, but the sounds grew fainter and fainter.
Vyn breathed a sigh of relief.
After coming to Earth, he thought the only thing they had to worry about would be the Negaverse, and maybe some of the White Moon who didn’t wish to help them. Then the Negaverse became something like allies, or perhaps more of a neutral party, and the White Moon…
Well, Vyn wouldn’t soon forget what some of them had done.
What he didn’t count on was having to defend themselves against the local wildlife. He was almost embarrassed by it.
“You’re welcome. The Commodore was very accommodating. You shouldn’t be afraid to ask for assistance when you need it,” said Vyn, who never liked to ask for help because he thought it made him a bother.
Then, with a gentle tug on Aliez’s sleeve, Vyn guided him onward again.
“Come on, let’s go back to the house. We should warn the others to be cautious around large birds.”
They’d certainly had enough “adventure” for one night.
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