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 Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 6:12 am
Quote: Prompt 10 (Hostile Garlands) : Festive garland has been hung all around the city. Destiny City has never skimped on their decor, and this year is no different. What is different is the way some of the garland seems to slither around the poles and arches it's hung on. Maybe it looks like an optical illusion at first, or maybe it’s just so strange that it doesn’t seem like it can be real, but it doesn’t take long to figure out that that’s not any ordinary garland–it has eyes, and teeth, and it’s the strangest looking snake you’ve ever seen but that doesn’t really matter when it’s attacking you. It is fast, and aggressive, and it blends in perfectly. Sometimes it seems like it’s five feet long, sometimes twenty; it doesn’t seem to have any venom, but its fangs are long and if it wraps around you it can be very constricting. There’s no telling what it wants, but it sure does seem to like to fight. Note: The snake 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 snake will always disappear before it can be caught.
It wasn’t so late that their parents would be too worried about them, but it was late enough that most people had already cleared the street and gone home, deciding to warm up from the icy air. He almost regretted having to power up, because instead of wearing a long, warm winter coat, Ephesus was, well… much more exposed to the elements this way. He wasn’t as cold as he thought he would be! But he didn’t want this youma hurting anyone--
“It’s not a youma?” he gasped as the garland shot towards them. He couldn’t feel any aura from it, and for a moment was confused by the magic that was making it come to life.
Oh, but he thought about it for too long and the itchy fake evergreen wrapped around his wrist and -- were those fangs he saw??
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 6:46 am
It didn’t feel like a youma. It kind of didn’t even look like one, but Amarynthos wasn’t really sure what else it could be. “Effie,” he said quickly, and bolted over so he could dig his fingers into the living garland. He tried to wrestle it off of him, ideally before Ephesus actually got hurt.
“Don’t let it bite you, or–”
Did it have teeth? Were those teeth?
“Hit it with–well, anything, if you can,” he said, and passed over his weapon. “Can you squeeze this in its mouth?”
He needed both hands, and planted his heels into the ground as he twisted and tugged and tried to dislodge it.
The whole thing was strange; it hadn’t seemed immediately aggressive, and at first he’d wondered if it had just been trying to get under Atticus’ clothes for warmth or something. Except, they both knew well enough that Destiny City was full of too many unnatural things for either of them to let their guard down, and he’d feel much better about helping some strange not-youma monster when it wasn’t wrapped up around Ephesus like that.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 6:57 am
Ephesus knew that Amarynthos would free him, but as Amarynthos worked on getting the living garland off from around his wrist, it managed to snake its way around his torso as well.
“I-- I don’t know if I can,” he confessed with a wail of distress as his heeled shoes scraped along the ground as he was pulled. He took Amarynthos’ weapon regardless, and tried doing what he told him to, but by now the garland snake was squeezing too tightly--
“Look out!” he gasped as he watched its fanged mouth lunge towards Amarynthos. Ephesus twisted and struggled against it, quickly blinking away the tears because that was not helpful right now.
“Ow--” he was barely able to gasp when it squeezed harder, like it was trying to get him to empty his lungs of all air.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:07 am
Alarm flooded through Amarynthos, but not so much that it disrupted his ability to think clearly. They’d been through too much for holiday decor to do them in.
He definitely saw those teeth, just a split second before they would have made contact. Thankfully, Ephesus had told him to look out, so he did.
Amarynthos dug his nails in deeper and pulled a bit more frantically, and when that didn’t pry the garland from Ephesus, he started to get more desperate. “It’s okay, you’re doing a great job.”
For a moment, he fumbled to retrieve his weapon, and then tried to wriggle that between the monster and Ephesus, and when that wasn’t working as much as he could, he started debating how he could hurt this thing enough to get it to let go.
When he tugged, it seemed like it just tried to wrap around Ephesus more. When he dug his nails in, he could swear he felt it twisting around to avoid damage.
Ephesus was about to cry, he could hear it in his voice.
The strange not-youma had already tried to bite him; in a moment of dubious thought processing, Amarynthos gripped the garland as tightly as he could and then leaned forward to try and bite it.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:16 am
The non-youma creature clearly hadn’t been expecting to be bitten. When it was, it did loosen its hold on Ephesus enough for him to gasp for air and struggle away, but it also lunged for Amarynthos.
Garland whipped about, reaching to wrap and snake its way around any limb - or neck. Fangs also flashed dangerously. It tried to lunge and take a bite out of Amarynthos, but Ephesus quickly shoved it out of the way with his baton.
Only he let out a yelp of pain when one of the fangs managed to cut across part of his arm.
“Let him go!” he yelled, swinging his baton at the garland once more, doing whatever he could think of -- short of trying to bite it himself -- to get it to back off.
It wasn’t fair! They hadn’t even done anything, and it was trying to hurt them!
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:38 am
Amarynthos’ arm had shot up, partly to block the bite and partly to make sure that it couldn’t weave around his neck. He had very little time to celebrate getting it away from Ephesus because now he had to deal with it on him, but–biting had worked! And Effie had done a great job so far!
The only difficult part right now was that Amarnythos couldn’t really get good purchase anywhere to pry it off of him–although, he was trying to step on the tail of the thing so he could pull it off.
“Is your–are you okay?” he blurted, but he was trying to save his breath. He couldn’t really tear his gaze away from the thing’s face out of what seemed to be ae very real concern that it might try to bite his face off.
His own weapon was loose in his hand, but he wasn’t out of ideas yet, and when the snake thing opened its mouth again, he hastily shoved the widest part of his weapon into it. He didn’t think he could lose his weapon in the monster, but he’d be willing to take that chance if it got it off of them.
“I will bite you so hard,” he muttered, thrashing a bit. “Get off!”
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:43 am
Oh, Amarynthos was so strong and so brave. Ephesus wanted to be just like him. Well, he knew that was impossible, but he wanted to do his best so Amarynthos knew how much he cared about him.
Amarynthos was already able to do what Ephesus hadn’t been able to with his weapon, and shoved the bulb into the snake’s mouth.
It thrashed about, clearly furious and ready to wrap around Amarynthos even tighter.
So Ephesus did the only thing that seemed to work so far.
He grabbed hold of the garland and bit down on the fake plastic foliage.
Somehow, that seemed to do the trick, along with Amarynthos keeping it at bay with his weapon. The garland writhed and released its hold and quickly slithered away into the darkness.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:57 am
Amarynthos held his breath for a good few seconds as he watched the garland disappear. A part of him thought they should go after it, but–
No, he was just happy to have it gone for right now. It felt wrong, it wasn’t like it was a youma. It didn’t feel evil, it wasn’t trying to drain their energy. It was just there. And, now it was gone. He sucked in a great breath and moved closer to Ephesus, wrapping his arms around him quickly before he drew back just enough to give him a good look over.
“Are you okay? –I have no idea what that thing was or where it came from.” He assumed Ephesus already knew this, but he wanted to confirm that there was nothing unknown between the two of them. He shook out his arms and made a face before reaching to brush his thumb over Effie’s cheek.
“You were so brave, I thought it was going to bite me for sure. Thanks, Effie. How’s your hand, can I see it? I mean, I know you have the healing magic. I’m okay, though, it didn’t hurt me. I don’t think we should go after it. Maybe we just spooked it. I mean, I don’t think it was someone's pet or something, but…it definitely wasn’t a youma.”
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 8:11 am
Whatever that creature was, it was finally gone, and Ephesus quickly reached for Amarynthos to hug him tight. He pulled back a little to let his boyfriend look him over, and he made sure to check and make sure Amarynthos was okay as well.
“It just stings a little,” he confessed, sniffling a little as he blinked away the lingering tears. His magic would be enough to heal it, but right now he wanted to get away as quickly as possible. Still, he held out his hand to show Amarynthos where the garland cut the back of his arm and wrist, but he’d definitely had worse injuries before.
“I’m glad you’re not hurt. And I’m sorry that I made you worry. Can we just go home? I don’t want to chase after it either.”
He liked being out and walking around the city with Elliot, but he would much rather avoid weird monsters like that.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 8:30 am
Amarythos seemed to have the same idea in mind; the faster they got out of there, the faster they could focus on relaxing and healing without anticipating some tinsel snake was going to sneak up for round two.
He carefully took Ephesus’ hand in his own and nodded after he seemed to determine that it wasn’t anything life threatening. “We can get some antiseptic on it back home, we can tell Michael about it and see if he knows what that was. Do you want to use your magic or are you okay? Let me carry you home, I’ll give you a piggyback ride. Even if you want to drop the whole Knight side for right now, I’m okay with that. And if we’re pressed close together, it’ll help us keep warm.”
He drew Ephesus’ hand to his lips and kissed his knuckle carefully. It was easy to frown at the damage he did see, because every scrape on Atticus felt worse than any of his own. Even if it wasn’t bad, Elliot still wanted to gather him up in his arms and hurry home so he could get it cleaned up, so he could tuck Atticus in bed, so he could play with his hair and tell him stories and make sure he was safe.
He knew he didn’t have to be protective–Michael and Devyn could do a good job there–but he wanted to. He couldn’t help it! And he’d already thought he should spend the night tonight–just in case–and it was so cold! What was he supposed to do, go to bed alone?
No, he wanted to carry Atticus home and make sure he was really okay, and not tinsel-poisoned, or some other strange, holiday affliction.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2023 8:46 am
Oh, Amarynthos was so sweet and considerate. Effie could feel his heart flutter with happiness, despite it racing from fear and worry from their most recent other-worldly encounter.
“I don’t want to bleed on you, so I’ll use some magic,” he decided, his cheeks flushing a little with delight when Amarynthos kissed his knuckle. Oh, that little frown was so cute, but he didn’t want Amarynthos frowning because he was worried.
“But…” he said after a moment. “Um… my legs are pretty sore. And I’m really cold, so… I would like a piggyback ride if that’s still okay?”
Were his legs really that sore? Not really, but he knew Amarynthos wouldn’t have offered to carry him if he didn’t really want to. And Ephesus kind of liked the idea of holding onto him to keep warm.
He held up his honeycomb baton for a few moments, using the magic he’d been granted to heal a good bit of the gash on his arm. But he wouldn’t be saying no to more attention.
“I don’t want my dads worrying,” he explained. He would still tell them what happened, but he wanted to prove that they could take care of themselves.
With his arm in decent shape and his knight magic dissipated, Atticus leaned close to press a kiss to Elliot’s cheek in thanks. “Okay, I’m ready.”
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