Prompt 2 (Paint the Night Sky): Destiny City has already had its fair share of snowfall but for the past week it’s just been constant. There hasn’t been a clear sky in days, and even when it’s not snowing it’s still too cloudy to see anything. Finally, one night, the clouds have finally thinned--only to reveal something more surprising than the suddenly good weather. A glorious display of colorful light dances over Destiny City. Auroras are uncommon in this area, but it’s something unique to see. Especially because it almost seems like the colors blend like watercolors, and look like they’re deliberately weaving around each other.
Before the ambush, Bri had always been incredibly carefree. Doing things as she saw fit so long as it worked within her time schedule. Often considered immature by friends and family they at least tolerated her personality quirks.
But like most things, poor planning and decision making landed put both her and Fiona in danger. Usually her twin was the one to pick up the pieces of the wreckage that was left behind, but when the two of them argued well… pride was a difficult thing to overcome.
Still, attempts were made, or at least they would have been if only Fiona came home at a reasonable time after work. Most days she stayed late, skated for a few hours with most of the lights turned off and music down low. But there were a few times where Breana simply couldn’t find her and attempts at calling often led to numerous messages left on the Voicemail.
There were a few times now when she considered reaching out to her skating partner, Nat. See if he would be a mediator between them or talk some sense into Fiona on her behalf. Unfortunately, she didn’t really know much about the man, however, she had watched the two perform in last year's competition.
Not wanting to just sit around, Bri grabbed her henshin pen from upstairs and a fleece blanket to keep herself warm before stepping out into the cold. “If you don’t want to talk to me that’s fine, then you can just listen.” She pursed her lips together in mild irritation, wishing for some reason that Fiona was just around the corner and had heard the declaration. But, a few steps out into the driveway revealed that she was just as alone out here as she was in the living room fretting.
Only when she was far enough away from home did Bri power up. “No regrets!” oh but there were many regrets and second guesses. Hell, it only took a short moment for her teeth to start chattering. “Agh… I hate being cold.” Went against her very nature but also her sphere.
Eleonora leaned her head back and looked up at the cloudless sky, marveling at the sweeps of color that illuminated the stars in a greenish hue. In a sense, the aura reminded her of a Vincent van Gogh painting, trees stood in silhouette with long cast shadows that danced upon the layer of freshly fallen snow.
It was both beautiful and distracting. So much so that without knowing, the Senshi of Heat had wandered within range of an aura that most definitely did not belong to Order or any of their allies.
He'd situated himself up real nice. For all that Gremlin could find fault with absolute perfection, even he had to admit that this had been a good plan. His nose was a bit cold where it stuck out of the blanket, and his huge ears left odd, chilly air gaps where everything else was snug against him, but for the most part, he could get behind this idea. He'd twisted an end of the blanket around his coffee cup to serve as a temperature stabilizer, and popped the lid off so he could tip his head in for a few quick laps.
There weren't many birds out to watch, and the ones that were out were kind of ugly and shoddy. Grey-black with messed-up and missing feathers, delicately hopping through the snow in search of buried morsels. None seemed perturbed by his lump of blanket on the bench, even though they definitely should've been if it was a little warmer, because he was a vicious predator and could eat three stupid birds for breakfast.
Except it was cold, and Gremlin was not even slightly interested in being tempted from his nest by scrawny, shoddy birds.
He hunkered down, curled his front paws around to wedge beneath his chest, wrapped his tail around his haunches, pinned his ears to try and mitigate the air pockets, and had just barely settled in enough to close his eyes, when-
He felt it, and the instant he did, it made Gremlin's hackles raise.
He shouldn't be surprised. There were enough senshi roaming the city that a Mauvian could go out on a good especially unfortunate day and just accidentally walk into one who'd never been powered. Super strange how many of them populated this planet, and they were all running amok for no damn good reason. Wandering around, abusing powers they didn't deserve, stinking up a world that wasn't even theirs. <******** disgusting.
His lips peeled back into a snarl as he craned his head out of the blanket, twisting to peer around for the source of aura, with one ear poking free of its confines as he found and stared at her: a white-haired girl peering dazedly up at the sky, not looking at where she was going, and definitely not making good use of being powered. If the humans weren't out here killing each other with magic, then they should just stay civilian so the youma could have them! <********>! Instead, she had to come out here and ruin a perfectly good outing, that he'd had to put time and preparation into.
If they were both lucky, she'd just keep walking.
Indigo_Plateau Crew
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Shanyume
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Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2021 12:43 am
Unfortunately, luck was not on either of their sides for Eleonora did finally get her head out of the clouds, or in this case the colored sky, and realized that there was an oddly subtle signature nearby.Youma were fairly easy to identify as were the lower-ranked agents. But this one didn’t really fit into either category.
“Strange…” brows knit together in bewilderment, the Senshi of Heat glanced around. Both kneecaps bounced enough that it felt like they were about to fall off her legs. Why couldn’t I be like Elsa? a small whimper escaped her while the lyrics of the children's favorite winter song ‘Let it Go’ over and over in her mind like an echo chamber. For a short while, she actually liked the song. But these days, Eleonora honestly couldn’t relate.
Slate-blue eyes roamed over the area until they settled on a pile of blankets. Completely unassuming at first, and if she wasn’t powered it likely would have remained unnoticed. But there was definitely a powered signature bundled up within it, tiny as it was, there was only one thing it could be: “A mauvian?”
Not just any guardian cat, but a chaos one that had a death glare which could make the dead roll over in their graves. With a hairless rat-like face and mean snarl, its startling presence gave her goosebumps, goosebumps.
Nonetheless, this was no place for a hairless mauvian to be staying. “Hello? Are you-” Ele pulled her hand back abruptly only when she realized that without her sister Alcor, she was deathly close to doing something rash by acting before thinking things through. “Are- are you ok?”
Indigo_Plateau
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 8:48 am
Shanyume
It took her full minutes to notice him, while Gremlin had been staring at her since the very second her aura entered the periphery of his senses. He knew that once she'd seen him and his little blanket pile, there was pretty much no way she wasn't going to walk over to him. Why wouldn't she, he lamented with a little eye roll as the girl drew closer, despite his pinned ears and warning snarls. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with some pretentious White Moon brat while he was trying to relax in peace!
But that would never be in the cards for him. The girl, like the rest of her filthy ilk, had to stick her nose right directly where it didn't belong and wasn't needed. Was he okay? As if there was innately something wrong with him! What a wretched creature!
"Am I okay?" Gremlin snapped back, giving a tiny roll of his shoulders and shake of his head so that the blanket mostly concealing him slid off his back and out of his vision. "Why? Do I look ill? Disgusting? Like something ain't right?" She had no idea how insulting she was. They never did, these stupid creatures! He was a Guardian, for ******** sake! If he was sick or unwell, he didn't need a human to wander up to him and say so. He wasn't a cat that had to rely on their protection.
He stepped out of his blankets to prowl the length of the bench. The cold blasted him hard once he was away from the insulated protection of his drapery and mechanical trinkets, but it was worth it to scare some high-and-mighty senshi rat away.
"If you wanna see something 'not okay,' I'll give you something 'not okay,' he threatened, yellowed teeth on full display as his scraggly whiskers twitched.
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Shanyume
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 9:12 am
“What the hell… It’s amazing how you were able to take a simple question and twist it into something cruel.” Brows furrowed in irritation at how quickly this escalated. How dare he take an innocent question and make it sound so mean. “Are you that full of chaos that you're incapable of telling when someone is asking you something out of sincere concern?”
Never had she seen a cat quite like him, but the unmistakable star on his forehead was a clear mark that, despite the lack of fur, he was indeed still a mauvian.
“I only asked because you looked both cold and homeless and this isn’t the kinda weather you should be out in, even if you had fur to keep you warm, the little toe-beans on your paws could get frostbite and that blanket…” pointed an accusing finger at the inanimate object as if it were somehow to blame for this misunderstanding. “It doesn’t exactly look like it’d be thick enough to keep you warm.”
Indigo_Plateau
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 9:28 am
Shanyume
Gremlin was affronted that this girl had the audacity to talk back when she'd intruded on someone minding their own business and deigned to insult them. They could've left each other alone and been perfectly content. That was what should've happened, but people never knew when to stay out of everyone else's business..
"You think I look homeless?" He spat, ears sticking straight up in shock and rage because he could hardly fathom why anyone would think a Guardian was wandering around uncared for. He was a little scrawny and a little wrinkly, and maybe he looked less well-kept than typical cats, but his skin was oily! He couldn't help it if he looked grimier than usual! "I'm a <******** Mauvian!" He snapped. "I have my choice of homes because I'm actually useful, unlike your wretched lot. Can't enjoy a ******** day without one of you rats intruding on it."
He couldn't even imagine, couldn't imagine a world where any of the General Sovereigns wouldn't make sure he had somewhere to go, if for whatever reason he couldn't access the school or Headquarters.
But he looked homeless because he wasn't as pretty as his breahren. And his blanket-! His new blanket that had been a gift just for him- his name on it! How dare she insult it. Gremlin yowled, a harsh and warbling sound that tore out of his throat as he lurched to the edge of the bench and swiped a paw at the girl with claws extended.
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Shanyume
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 9:51 am
Oh that’s rich, calling me a rat? Give him an outfit and he could play the part of the Rat King in the Nutcracker at the performance theater. Hell, he even had the attitude to match; all high and mighty, talking down to someone just for so much as looking in his direction. Self-image issues much?
In her moment of distraction, the little hairless goblin took the chance to swipe at her, raking sharp claws across the back of her hand from wrist to knuckle leaving four parallel rips that hurt like a b***h and began to bleed almost immediately.
A surprised pained yelp escaped her, a sharp sound in the otherwise quiet area when she pulled her hand back and applied pressure to the wound with her other. “God-damn it….” Eleonora leveled a pointed glare at the little piece of s**t and nearly kicked a wave of snow and slush at him for being such a p***k.
“Yes, yes you look homeless because who in their damn mind would be out in this weather unless it was absolutely necessary. Either that or be completely out of their right mind which clearly you fit in the latter category. With an attitude like that, I would be surprised if the agent you were staying with just kicked you out.”
Stop… her mind warned before he did that guardian forehead beam s**t she knew they were all capable of.
“I asked out of honest concern because I could only hope that if my guardian cat,” well… not really hers since Liryn did not live with them unless Arian was out of the country for a time. “If he were ever in a place where he felt like he was alone that someone would treat him with kindness and bring him in.”
“Whatever, clearly you’re fine on your own. Freeze for all I care, at least I tried to help.” The wound on her hand needed to be cared for, it burned and stung like something fierce and she did not trust shoving her hand in the dirty snow to numb the pain without the risk of infection. “I pity whomever you do live with.” She spat before turning around and leaving him to his devices.
Indigo_Plateau
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 10:20 am
Shanyume
He'd bled her. Gremlin's lips peeled back into a snarling little smile. She'd taunted him out of the comfort and warmth of his nest, and she'd gotten gouged in return. Maybe that was fair. They should both be suffering if he had to put up with her intrusion and her insults.
He wouldn't even grace her stupid comments with an answer. Who would want to be out? Him obviously! Since he'd joined the Negaverse, he'd been blessed with reliable housing and steady food income. He'd never had that before, always scrounging around in garbage bins or trapping pests like mice and birds for a bite. Gremlin would not trade away the comforts of a bed or his access to Headquarters. He hated winter. Hated the cold. But a life outside was still most of what he knew.
Why was it 'out of his mind' to want to watch the birds and breathe the crisp air and watched the cool, grey clouds roil overhead? He had his warm drink. He had a blanket. He wasn't some abandoned animal just because he wanted to be outside!
If he got dangerously cold, he had his tablet. No general would ignore the summons of a Mauvian. Or he could just put on the stupid human glamor he'd gone out of his way to achieve. Then he could just walk home mostly unhindered. It wasn't anyone's business what he was doing or how he handled himself! Especially not some nosy, intrusive senshi girl. And from what he knew of those worlds, they needed more help than he did! "Don't you have your own dead world you can go harass? If you're looking for something to pity, you've got an entire planet for it, so shove off instead of judging me, minding my own business!"
Nataniel would never ick him out. If he tried, Basyl would stop him in a heartbeat. Gremlin was sure of that. Gremlin would not ever again be in a place where he had nowhere to go.
Alone...?
That was a different story, but he wasn't out here living for the company of stupid humans, anyway. He snarled at her, ears pinning back again. "Yeah, yeah, I can see all the help you offered! Gonna run off now that you've got me out in the cold, huh! Some righteous senshi you are, worthless brat!"
