Monoceros was still taking time to himself, instead of talking to anybody else about what had occurred with Arsenolite. He certainly was an Arse, at least. His face twisted into a fierce frown as he thought about that night's events again, blood boiling. Why? Why? He wished he had answers, wished he remembered anything, wished he had any sort of emotional strength to do something about it. But no, all he has were tears and sadness and probably depression. He wasn't... motivated. It sucked.
Angrily, he stomped on a puddle, cracking the ice savagely and enjoying the crack! sound it made for a microsecond before he was falling into the puddle. He managed a strangled gasp before he was dragged down under, the water ice cold and shocking his system. It felt like brain freeze but for his entire body (and also brain freeze). His thoughts and heartbeat stuttered as he scrambled, looking around him and seeing only pitch black with faint lights in the distance. Which way was up? He had tilted when he fell in and had no clue, and oh, god, his chest was burning, he needed to breathe—
Someone's hands were grabbing him and pulling him up, God, he hoped it was up and not some deep dark ocean tentacle monster taking him further down to eat him, and then he was clear of the water and on the pavement, coughing and spluttering and wheezing as he tried to regain his breath. ********, everything hurt, and he was so, so cold.
Panting, he blinked blearily and turned to who saved him. "Thank you," he said quietly, squinting and trying to clear his vision. Who was that?
Noir Songbird
Prompt 5 (Ice Bath): Rainfall is rare in Destiny City during Winter; there have been a few light showers between the occasional snow but it’s never been enough to be significant. In some places, it’s just enough for a thin layer of ice to cover the ground and make it a little slippery, but ultimately it’s not enough to worry about. In an inconspicuous place in town, you step into one of these icy puddles and the thin layer of ice shatters. The hole itself seems maybe three feet wide and if you’ve ever been in the area before you know it’s just a pothole a few inches deep at most. Except, when the ice shatters, you fall, plummeting into it as if it were a lake of icy water. It’s pitch black around you and only pale blue lights shimmer above you. The darkness is never ending and you can’t make out the details of anything except the shrinking hole above you. Maybe you remember how to swim and pull yourself out, maybe you black out and feel someone else pulling you out--either way, your frozen, soaking body is pulled from the puddle. The chill is immense, but if you look at the hole after being pulled out, all you can see is the ground below. There’s no sign that what you just experienced is real--except for the fact that you’re still soaking wet.
Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 7:07 pm
It was a nice night to be out on a walk, Marialite thought. It had been raining, before, and she had thought she might not get out to patrol and drain energy--because if you asked her, "it was pouring and I didn't want to" was a perfectly valid reason not to do that, and no one had yet told her otherwise, so here she was--but it had cleared up, and althought it was chilly, magic gave her a level of protection.
Besides, the city was beautiful after rain. There was a certain freshness in the air, a cleanliness--and an anticipation. The atmosphere seemed to be waiting for whatever was to come next, and Marialite loved that feeling of anticipation. Whatever she found tonight she was sure it would be interesting.
The tingle of a Corrupt Super aura piqued her interest, and she altered her direction to go for it. It might be someone she knew, but if not, it was always good to get to know more of her comrades. Let them know that she was here, a Captain with some experience, and willing to talk about whatever they might be interested in talking about. So she started in that direction, and then she heard a loud crack, and she started running faster.
She got there in time to watch a figure disappear under water--water that she knew had no rights being there. Her heart picked up speed, and she ran for it, kneeling down and reaching to grab the hand she saw grasping for the edge.
She pulled, and pulled, and got them up and over, and--
And in a moment, once she had some time to catch her breath and look, she realized that this was someone familiar.
At first, she felt a pang of bitterness, but only for a moment before her expression brightened and her face broke into a bright grin.
"Monoceros!" Her voice was cheery. "Look at you! You look amazing! Wet, but amazing--are you okay?" She said, quickly, realizing that the water might have been cold. "What happened?"
Monoceros rubbed his eyes, taking a moment to truly regain his breath. ********, his ribs hurt. Breathing hurt. He'd gotten pretty banged up down there. In... the depths of a ******** puddle. What the hell.
He coughed again and opened still-bleary eyes to look at the person who'd saved him again. He was probably just too cold to process anything other than being cold and the need to get to warmth.
The moment he thought it was the moment he remembered to actually feel cold, and wasn't that just a fine pickle. He shivered hard and wrapped his arms around himself, eyes watering.
"Who-Who," he started, then coughed again, ignoring the tears streaming down his face from the sheer amount of stress he was experiencing. "Know me? 'm... cold. Stomped... ice... puddle... go down... whee?"
His teeth were chattering so hard he was sure if he actually tried to sound like a human person he'd bite his tongue off. As it was, saying the few words he had felt extremely dangerous.
He really hoped this person with the cute green braids had fire magic of some kind.
Noir Songbird
Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 11:16 pm
Oh, okay, yeah, he was definitely cold. Marialite inhaled tightly, and then very gently reached out and put her hands on his shoulders. She had an idea, but it was only half of one, and maybe it would work, but maybe it wouldn't.
"We knew each other before you corrupted. You might not remember me--I know corruption takes memories, it took half of mine. But we were friends, and I want to help you, so I'm gonna suggest something: power down. You an power back up if you want, but if you power down, your clothes won't be wet anymore and we can start warming you up, yeah?"
She couldn't help but be reminded of that snowy night, two years ago, when she'd ended up in a little cabin with Galaxite and Caledonite. That was the first time she'd been around them for a long time, and they'd been so sweet to her--she expected things with Monoceros wouldn't end like things with them had, not least because no one had showed off any civilian identities, but this was a start.
Monoceros stared at her for a moment as he shivered, barely feeling her hands on him. Oh, he was numb. That wasn't good. He wanted to not be wet anymore, but powering down was an awful lot of trust. Friends before or not. He didn't know what to believe. Trust, or not.
"O-Okay," he finally said, because he probably needed to not die more immediately than worry about the consequences of doing this.
He closed his eyes, tried to take a deep breath, and powered down. The effect was immediate—no longer wet, and in much warmer clothing than his senshi outfit had. He groaned, opening his eyes again.
"I d-don't have a-any mem-memories," he explained, "I'm a whole-whole new p-person. S-So I don't rememb-ber your name, sorry. Oh, God, I'm so happy I'm getting warm again, what the ******** was that puddle?"
Noir Songbird
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 9:00 pm
Marialite let out a relieved breath. He looked much warmer, now, and she was glad to see it. And with a little smile, she powered down herself--trust had to be mutual, right?
"That's okay, that just means you get to start over, right? And so do we." She held out a hand. "Hi, I'm Freyalise. Or, Captain Marilaite, when I'm powered up. You can call me Frey, or Freya, if you want. Would you like to go somewhere warm? We can go back to the house I share with my boyfriends, I'm sure they won't mind you coming in to warm up a bit."
She looked back at the puddle and exhaled. "I don't know what that was. Magic, maybe? Nasty magic, if it was. Maybe from some kind of winter Senshi, though I don't know how they'd have it work so it could activate without them nearby...." She frowned. "We can look around here later, once you're warm. Safety first, investigation after."
Surprise flickered across his face when she powered down too, but he smiled and shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you, Freya. I'm Toráin. And yes, please. Tell me you have hot chocolate," he said gratefully, chuckling a bit. "It's still freezing out here and I'm pretty sure some of my organs are still popcicles."
He glanced at the puddle and shivered again. "Or we could just not come back. Ever. Sounds way better to me," he said with a soft laugh.
Noir Songbird
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 9:23 pm
Freya nodded and stood up, offering him a hand. "Let's go," she said. "We're not far at all, and we definitely have hot chocolate." Or, well, Caerwyn would run out to get some if they were out. She knew her boyfriend, knew that he would gladly be accommodating to them.
"And, Toráin?" She smiled, broadly. "I'm glad we get to be friends twice."
It was a lucky thing, wasn't it? To find him all over again, to get to know him a second time. Except now, they were on the same side, which meant that the fact that she'd fudged a little about them being friends totally didn't matter. They were now, and that was what was important.
