The Reservoir (4) : The Destiny City Reservoir opened about two years ago and is an easy escape from the big city. It’s a five minute drive outside of the Eastern side of town and features clear water and sandy beaches--although, the sand here is notorious for squeaking when you step on it. It’s a hot spot for all fun summer activities, but it’s been in the news for mysterious reports of some strange, aquatic monster. Some accounts say they’ve spotted a twenty foot long, snake like creature capable of rearing a long neck high above the water. It’s hard to tell if the videos are doctored, but there are too many rumors to dismiss easily. Something strange might be lurking deep in the water. Or it’s just a hoax to get people out to the Reservoir!
But…Sometimes, people feel like something is grabbing their ankle, even if they are just wading in the shallow end. In the deeper parts of the water, it gets a little more intense: something has been said to grab onto ankles and pull. People have been warned about dangerous pranks, but so far no one has been caught. In the shallow end, anyone unfortunate enough to be targeted may feel themselves being knocked off their feet and tugged into the water; anyone in deep water may feel a firm grip on their ankle, tugging them lower and lower. Somehow, anyone it targets is freed--either by wriggling and fighting, or because someone intervenes and pulls the would-be victim up. No one has drowned in the lake. Yet. It's impossible to see who, or what, is doing this, but it usually gives up after one failed attempt. Usually.
While you may find yourself harassed by the supposed cryptid, or see something visibly odd in the distance, you cannot take any pictures of the creature. Who knows if you’re even being attacked by the cryptid–or just another youma?
It hadn't been too long after getting purified that Nectaris had gotten used to dealing with youma. None of them liked her. That was the first thing that she'd noticed. She'd gotten sneaked up a couple of times, and found claws slashing at her or teeth at her throat, and she'd had to swing around her staff or blast her magic until the youma was a pile of dust.
She could have sworn that this one in the lake, though, with its tentacles that kept trying to grab at her face, and its body that she couldn't quite see, was even more mad at her than the average youma. It'd had a friend that looked like a messed up fairy that had come out of the woods, alternating between hissing and screaming bloody murder, with little flashing head wings that made Nectaris's brain feel like goo, and that one had definitely been extra mad, but it had also been easy to dust.
The tentacle youma she just kept whacking at and whacking at with her staff, but it didn't seem to be going anywhere. It just kept wrapping tentacles around her legs, and around her arms, and it would've wrapped them around her throat, too, if she didn't keep pushing them away with her staff.
Usually she didn't feel in over her head with youma, but this was getting to the point where her heart was starting to beat really fast.
cibarium
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 1:43 pm
Eventually, at some point, the frequency of whacking noises began to exceed the frequency with which Nectaris was swinging her staff. Some other whacking implement had now been introduced to the scene, once with a somewhat heavier sound. Its wielder grumbled with annoyance and splashed about a bit as his limbs started becoming entangled in slimy tentacles as well.
"This thing always needs more than a few hits. Don't worry, just keep going." He sounded like a math teacher encouraging a student to figure out an algebra problem, forcefully bringing his spade down on the lake youma all the while.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 1:55 pm
Nectaris had been feeling pretty discouraged, but hearing someone else coming up to whack the youma alongside her, all while telling her she was doing fine, was enough to get her spirits right up.
She spun her staff around the other way and kept right on fighting, until finally, finally, the youma exploded. At least it was big enough that the dust cloud was really satisfying.
With a sigh, Nectaris plopped down right there at the edge of the water, her skirt and moon stockings getting soaked as she glanced over to see who it was that had helped her out.
"Thanks," she said. "I'm Nectaris. I like you hat!"
She'd seen some pretty cool fashion statements even in the short time she could remember of being a magical girl, but this guy really had the best hat.
cibarium
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 2:47 pm
"Thanks," answered the fellow Knight. "I'm Asphodel. Of Saturn." He stayed standing on the lake's edge, and took a look at Sylvite's uniform while water lapped at his boots. Not that he had been trying too hard to categorize them, but she didn't look like any of the other Knights he had seen or encountered so far -- and she hadn't said what world she served.
He peered at her soaked moon stockings, and looked again at the moon-patterned staff, and the other moons decorating her person. The gears slowly moved in his head as he thought about what that could imply. "You... you're not a Knight of the Moon, are you?" he asked, cautiously. How long had there been Moon Knights? They certainly hadn't been around from the beginning.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:15 pm
"Ooooh, Saturn? I haven't seen any Saturn Knights before, it's kinda a cool, like, goth look you've got going on?"
At least, the skull shovel was pretty goth. The giant hat with the gauzy veil probably counted as something else, avant-garde maybe? She could've spent like half an hour going full fashion designer mode and analyzing all of it, but that wasn't what he was here for.
She knew that not knowing something basic like what a Saturn Knight was might have been kinda suspicious, so she added, before he could ask, "I'm new. Uh, purified."
She glanced away at that. She didn't think she was embarrassed about it, but it was still always kinda weird, admitting it.
"And yeah, I'm a Moon Knight."
cibarium
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:27 pm
Asphodel gave Nectaris an incredulous look at her answer, and then again at her hair at her face, and two and two came together, and he started laughing. His spade swung noisily down into the silt, kicking flecks of it up onto his boots, and he laughed harder than he had in a very, very long time.
"You got out, then? Told you so," he said, smugly. "You're welcome, by the way. Wow, I bet the Negaverse is mad." Now he was stroking his chin appreciatively at the irony. One of the first Knights to awaken in this era had been a Negaverse agent. Now the same was true for the first Moon Knights, whatever the hell their sudden existence meant.
His wisp blinked into being between their faces, seeming to inspect Nectaris carefully.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:40 pm
Almost everyone else had been either really nice and accepting of the fact that she'd purified, or maybe a little bit weirded out 'cause she'd done something mean to them in the past, as Sylvite. She'd gotten punched, once.
She'd never gotten laughed at. That was new. She didn't really mind it, just like she didn't mind that him dropping his shovel was getting mud all over her already muddy outfit.
She just kind of blinked up at him, wondering what the story was with this dude.
"You told me I was gonna leave the Negaverse?" she asked. "Huh. Yeah, about half of the people I've been talking to said I was kinda sad and miserable with the whole situation, there at the end, so they're glad I got out. The other half are totally shocked, though. Apparently I was pretty into the whole being evil thing there for a while."
She tilted her head. "I uh, don't remember any of it."
cibarium
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:52 pm
Asphodel leaned back slightly, gave an oh, and slowly nodded. So her Negaverse memories had gotten erased, same as Siegfried.
"I'd have to agree with the people who said you were miserable," he answered. "I met you here about six months ago. You didn't think you could become a Knight, and I disagreed." He made eye contact with Nectaris, briefly. "And I told you about my own time in the Negaverse. You seemed to find it a compelling story."
It was snowing back then, frozen. Now the summer heat was creeping in. Asphodel said, "I'm glad you got out. You made the right choice."
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 4:19 pm
“The thing is, I wouldn’t have been able to become a knight if the Code hadn’t helped me out,” she said. The mud was getting pretty squishy under her legs, so she stood up, walked away from the edge, and then powered down and back up really quick so that her dress was nice and pink again.
“My starseed’s boring, I’m not a reincarnation of anyone important. I joined the Negaverse ‘cause I thought that was the only way I was gonna get powers. I remember that much.”
The General who’d corrupted her hadn’t explained it exactly like that, but she’d tried fighting youma, like that would awaken something in her, but then he’d found her and offered something else.
“But, I broke a Princess out of getting tortured, so the Code gave me powers when I purified.”
Which had its own kinda weird implications, but he wasn’t asking about that.
cibarium
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 4:33 pm
"I see," said Asphodel, with a twirling lilt in his tone that revealed his true thoughts: What a fascinating story. Had the Code directly given powers to someone like this before? Was that how Knights usually awakened? He had no recollection of encountering the Code at all when he was purified, so the only difference he could establish for certain was that he was a Saturn Knight and Nectaris was a Moon Knight.
So, what had happened?
Then a warm sensation on his face snapped him back to reality. "Right. Sorry I didn't tell you earlier, that youma's tentacle suckers have teeth." He sighed and threw off his hat, which ended up gliding out to float on the water. "Are you bleeding anywhere? I keep a first-aid kit on me." He pulled it out of his subspace and started pulling out wipes and bandages. Meanwhile, the wisp followed and settled on top of the floating hat, seeming content to rest there it as it drifted further and further away.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 5:11 pm
Teeth?
She'd been really focused on dusting the youma and then on talking to the mysterious dude who had shown up afterwards, but now that he mentioned it, one of her arms was bleeding, and refreshing her outfit hadn't done much about that.
"Yeah," she said, holding it out so that he could see. "That one was kinda weird, it almost seemed mad at me?"
It was also just really resistant, which was why it had gotten a teeth-tentacle bite in on her.
"You said you were in the Negaverse, too?" she said as she stepped closer to him. "That's cool." She squinted. "Okay, I guess maybe cool isn't the word? It's cool to me, though, 'cause, like, I haven't met that many other people who are purified like me."
cibarium
Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 6:59 pm
Mindful of Nectaris's preference for not being muddy, Asphodel moved over to a drier patch of ground away from the water's edge and sat there, setting the first aid kit down near him and gesturing towards it for the other Knight to make use of. "Let me know if you need help with any of it," he said as he begun to tend to his face.
"That youma probably recognized you. It was here the last time we met here as well. It was friends with your youma, and you were both mad I kept coming here and dusting it." He picked up a decayed leaf that had stuck to his boot and twirled it thoughtfully between his dark-gloved fingers for a moment. "Honestly, I have a hard time wrapping my head around youma having feelings, but it might have felt betrayed seeing you out of the Negaverse after you tried to protect it from me."
Which meant the two of them dusting it together would be adding injury to insult. Asphodel wondered if it would retaliate in some way later.
Then he grinned again, much more visible now with his hat still floating in the water. "There's more of us than you'd think." He was incredibly pleased to say that. "I've met quite a few. One of them lost his Negaverse memories, like you. I'm sure he'd be happy to help you adjust to things."
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 8:16 pm
“Uh, do you know what my youma looked like?” Asked Nectaris, her eyes flicking towards a smaller pile of dust that was off a few feet away in the grass, “Cause this guy totally had a friend, and I totally dusted it.”
She puffed up air in her cheeks for a couple seconds, then said, “That’s awkward.”
It wasn’t like she could just let a youma run around, though, even if it’d used to be connected to her in some way. Although, she kept stopped thinking about that so much when Asphodel said something else.
“Wait.” She blinked once, and then her eyes went big. “You know someone else who purified and doesn’t understand being in the Negaverse?” She didn’t wanna make too big of a deal out of it, but she was bouncing up on her toes anyway.
“Can you introduce us or something? Like, nobody understands that part.”
cibarium
Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2022 10:28 am
Asphodel lifted a thick eyebrow into a cluster of plum-toned bangs. "That one was probably yours. You mentioned them being friends back then too." He squinted at nothing, trying to recall its appearance. "It looked like a little fairy thing."
Yeah, that was descriptive.
He had started wiping down his face upon bringing up Siegfried, and pulled out another wipe with his free hand to offer to Nectaris. "Of course. He'll be happy to meet you, I'm sure. His name is Siegfried of Neptune. Do you have your ring yet? You can just send him a message saying I referred you."
There was a pause as he applied a bandage to his temple.
"And if you like, you can meet the rest of the Brigade sometime. It's me, him, and all the other traitors I know. You're a traitor as well, so you're eligible to join."
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2022 4:42 pm
A little fairy thing? Yeah, that sounded right. Nectaris puffed out her cheeks. "Yeah, that's a little bit awkward," she said. She'd just totally destroyed her old buddy. No wonder it had seemed so mad.
Not that it mattered nearly as much as the rest of what he was saying.
"I have a ring, yeah," she said. "I'll totally try to talk to him."
She took the wipe he was offering and got to work, scrubbing at her forearms and wincing a little bit as the alcohol stung the sucker cuts.
"And, like, I'll talk to anyone, but a whole team of people who have been through this stuff? Obviously I wanna meet them, yeah. And, like, we can go from there? It might be cool, having a team. I know I had one before."
