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.
In time, Naeria would likely have to work around Earth's weather conditions, but right now, she was done with snow. It had been bad enough at first, when it was just covering the interesting plant life, but then it had turned into a sticky, inescapable trap, and soon afterwards, it had attracted some kind of violent bird.
That meant finding a location to do some training had been difficult, since the woods where she spent most of her time, and did not have to worry about hiding her true form, were currently covered in the suspicious material.
Eventually she'd settled on a spot outside of a manufacturing facility, where the humans parked their cars. At night, it was mostly empty, which kept them from startling the humans with their technology. More importantly, the surface on the ground was lined with a salt that lowered the freezing point of the water, preventing snow from building up.
"I don't know if I need to hesitate less or think things through more," she said to Andreiya once they'd arrived, looking over her blaster for any damage or other safety issues. "That battle was so different from what we practiced on Velencya."
Of course she would keep practicing, though. Some training was better than none.
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 5:01 pm
Andreiya nodded and drew out his own blaster, flipping it over in his hand to make sure it was still in perfect condition. It was, he’d cleaned it just this morning and he knew it was in good shape, he was just still getting used to it again.
“The battle was chaotic,” he agreed. “I think everyone was everywhere. There was no real plan. I mean, the Commodore had a plan, but everyone else? The humans are just so busy. I am still unable to wrap my head about how they cannot get along. But then, I suppose they cannot even comprehend how poorly they are treating their world, but,” he shrugged.
“I suppose that is neither here nor there. The important thing is that you can protect yourself in case something else happens again. Maybe you need to hesitate less and also think things through more? Think faster, act faster? If you could improve only one, which would it be?”
stari_maga
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 8:09 pm
"I do not trust the humans," Naeria agreed. "Chaotic is a good word for them. I know that there is Chaos here, but I did not expect-"
Her face went blank and her words left her as she thought back to the intensity of the violence she'd witnessed, of all of the chaos and loss of that night. Her fingers curled tighter around the hilt of her blaster.
It took her a while to talk again. It took until she had turned to thinking about Andreyia's question, and over half a minute had passed before she had a response.
"Act quickly," she said. "If danger is complicated, like in that battle, that is one thing. If danger is obvious? I want to be able to do something."
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2022 8:26 am
Andreiya waited for her to be ready to speak; he didn’t seem like he had any desire to rush her, and the truth was that he was worried for her and her well-being. A good answer was worth the wait, and her well-being was worth more than that.
“That is a good answer,” he said, but he probably would have said that no matter what she’d chosen. “It is easier to correct a mistake if you are alive and in one piece. I think you must learn to trust yourself more than you already do. If you doubt yourself, you will spend more time thinking than you have to act. I am going to stand on the other side of this concrete, and I am going to shoot at you. My blaster is turned down very lower, it will tingle if it hits you, but only enough so you know where I made contact. I want you to run at me, as fast as you can, and I want you to watch where I am aiming, and I want you to try and dodge. But, I am very fast, so you will have to act very fast. Otherwise, I will shoot you. Okay?” he asked, and looked like he was ready to head to the other side of the parking lot so they could begin their practice.
stari_maga
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 6:27 am
Naeria wasn't sure how to be confident in decisions she'd have to make in a fast paced situation, such as a fight.
Naeria was a scientist. Her confidence was in facts, in things discovered by observation and in research confirmed by repetition. She was feeling good about the mushroom projects, now that she'd had a few months to gather data and work on projections.
There were not months when someone was shooting at you.
She nodded at Andreyia, though. She could learn to dodge. She could learn to keep herself alive, then do the thinking after. That made sense.
"I'm ready," she said, backing up some herself as he repositioned himself across the pavement.
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:44 pm
Andreiya drew in a breath and nodded; he knew this wasn’t going to hurt her, and it was just training! It was just practice. Better she work with him than get hurt!
If they were going to train like this, he could make sure his blaster wasn’t going to do any damage, and he’d rather shoot her and annoy her with a weak blast than risk her winding up on the receiving end of someone who wanted to do her harm.
He’d already been afraid he was going to lose her once before, he didn’t want that to happen again.
“Okay,” he called back, and raised his gun. “Then, let’s go,” he said, and fired just over her shoulder.
stari_maga
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 7:26 pm
Naeria was ready. Naeria could do this. She sucked in a breath. She focused.
She saw the flash of the blaster. The energy streaked towards her, near her shoulder. This time, she did not hesitate. She ducked down and to the left, taking a few sprinting steps forwards.
Naeria smiled. It would get harder to dodge as she got closer, she knew, but she also had a few seconds right now to close the distance between them while his blaster recharged.
As she ran forwards, her boots splashed into one slushy puddle, then a second. Naeria thought nothing of it. Then they hit a third, only this one was different. This one was impossibly deep.
There was no yelp, only a second of wide eyed panic and a small splash. Then, Naeria vanished beneath the asphalt.
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2022 6:50 pm
Andreiya had not done that. She was gone, and he had not done that. The ground had been solid a moment ago, he’d walked across it on his way over here, how--
He’d started running too, and sucked in a great breath in case the ground broke beneath him. He heard water. He didn’t know how to swim. He didn’t know if she knew how to swim.
He dropped his blaster by the hole and dropped to his knees near it. The hole was dark and he couldn’t see, but he knew Naeria must be there, she’d just been there.
His lungs were still full of air, and even if he couldn’t see he stuck both hands into the water and reached for her, and when he couldn’t find her like that he sucked in a bigger breath and dunked himself into the water to try and grab at her. He was bent at the waist, using the weight of his legs to hold him in place, but he was desperately trying to find her, to find anything, so he could pull her back up.
stari_maga
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:06 pm
Naeria did not know how to swim. She didn't know to hold her breath. The shock of falling made her gasp, and then her mouth was full of water, and then her throat was full of water and her lungs were getting there, and that was enough to have her panic.
A thought broke through. Act fast.
She wasn't sure about swimming, but she knew the basics of physics. She kicked down. She reached up. There was light above. She could make out the hole that she must have fallen through. She couldn't be that far down.
Then a hand caught her wrist, and she scrambled and scrabbled with Andreyia's help until she was back on the wet pavement. At that point she started coughing the water back out. She turned away so she didn't splatter his shoes, and she did not look back up at him.
"I hate winter," she said quietly, and shivered.
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 7:44 pm
Oh, he had her!
Andreiya felt frozen and only half of himself had been under the water at any point in time. He coughed, not because water had entered his lungs but because he’d forgotten how to breathe in the cold of it all.
“I am sorry,” he blurted. “I did not–that was not my shooting! The ground was solid, I would not have endangered you like that if I knew?”
He rolled over and tried to pat her back to encourage the water out of her. He didn't care about his shoes, didn’t care about any of that. “We should go home. Let me make you some soup, we can get you in warm blankets. How cold are you, do you want me to carry you? We can share body heat. I hate winter, too. It is not good for my plants, it is not good for me. Are you okay?”
stari_maga
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:19 pm
After half a minute or so of coughing and gasping, she was able to suck in a better breath. It was only then that she turned back to Andreyia. He might not have cared about his shoes, or his clothes but she did.
Once there was no more water coming out of her, though, she turned and wrapped her arms around him pressed close for warmth as he'd offered.
"I know," she said, when he told her it wasn't him. "There are just things I don't understand about this world."
That was the worst part of it, worse than getting a sudden, frigid bath. The frustration came through in her voice. She didn't know the rules of this place. She'd avoided snow after the previous incidents and something dangerous had still happened.
She shivered, then managed to stand. "I'm freezing, but I can walk until we get back to the house. Soup will help, and I think I am going to try the bathtub."
It still seemed wasteful to Naeria in most situations, but, perhaps not this one.
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2022 9:38 am
“Yes, it will be better than you catching cold. The water can be recycled,” he assured. “They have a surplus, they are wasteful. But they have water treatment facilities. It will be recycled.” At an expense of energy, but what was a little more. One bath wasn’t going to ruin this planet. And her health was more important, they could find a way to make up for it later.
He kept his arms around her and rubbed her back, trying to share every ounce of warmth he had with her now. “If you get cold and want me to carry you, I will. The offer is there, I want you to conserve your strength. This world is very strange.”
He stood, carefully, and tried to bring her up with him so they could start heading back.
“I do not understand it either. There are some things I like. There might be more that I do not.” He kept an arm hooked around her and rubbed at her back again. “You did good. This was not how I wanted to train with you, but I am proud of you. Maybe we should learn to swim.”
stari_maga
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:41 pm
It was true that they did not have to be quite so careful with resources here. The last thing she wanted was to be wasteful, but it was fine to use what they needed. Right now, she needed to be warm.
Moving helped with that some. She didn't think that she wanted to be carried, but she leaned against Andreyia as they walked, and as he rubbed her back. He felt warm against her, and that helped, although she still shivered.
"That might have been better practice than any we could have thought up?" she said as they walked. "We both did it. We both acted fast."
Then she went silent for a while, filling her head with thoughts of soup and warm water as they made their way back through the city.
