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 Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 7:37 am
Quinn was pretty sure that without the jacket the man with the Roxy gave him, he would have frozen to death. The bagels he was given helped fill his stomach at least, but he wanted to save them as long as he could, because he didn’t know when he would get another chance for food.
Being a civilian also meant he couldn’t feel what was going on around him. It made him jumpy. He knew there was Chaos on this world, but he didn’t know what other forms they took. Much less that they could take the form of creatures like the Roxy.
Or he was just imagining things and was exhausted. He felt weary. His head was spinning still. The ache was growing worse by the minute. He couldn’t feel his toes, even as he hid them under papers and tried to cover them with the jacket as he crouched down near the bushes.
The growling was getting louder. Something sizzled as it dripped… dripped… onto the ground, in the slush and grass.
He’d been clutching the last four bagels tightly to his chest, lest one of those vermin try to steal from him again. But the growing dread from whatever was prowling around had him standing from his spot in the bushes, at least to look around.
And there it was… a beast more menacing than the Roxy. Fangs dripping with what could have only been acid, with the way it melted through the organic matter it dripped on.
Quinn reached for his pen--
Ah, but his hands were too stiff and frozen to get a good grip and pull it from his pocket.
“s**t,” he hissed, and took the bag of bagels and hurled it at the creature, before trying to back further away from it while he struggled to make his hands work.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 7:50 am
Bilskirnir didn’t go out on his own often. He’d been advised not to. Chris and Paris talked about the Negaverse like it was a global threat, like he’d end up six feet under in seconds if he came across the wrong person at the wrong time. Something about Queens and General Sovereigns. Something about vendettas. Something that didn’t have much to do with him, yet.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Chris and Paris. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate their concern. He did. But he was 1) a grown man, and 2) strong in his own right, even without the magic powers. He could handle himself for the short amount of time it took to walk down the street.
Besides, he was worried about the homeless kid. Young adult. Stranger-person.
It turned out, he had every reason to be.
The youma was obvious. Even if he hadn’t been able to sense it, he would have known there was something off about it. Bilskirnir didn’t know of any creatures that salivated acid.
“Hey, ugly!” he tried to draw its attention. “Come get a tasty starseed right over here!”
Bilskirnir threw his weapon at it. Seeing as it was some sort of crystal ball instead of a handy sword or ax, it wasn’t much of a weapon to begin with, but it was solid and made a loud crack when it hit the youma. It didn't even break!
It did, however, roll under the bush as soon as it hit the ground.
“Oh, s**t, my bad.”
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 7:59 am
A knight?? Quinn stared at the stranger in disbelief. Did he get magically dropped off near someone’s Wonder? But… those symbols… this world didn’t seem like it would be Jupiter.
It was no matter. He finally managed to free the pen, fumbled it a little, and then used it to power up.
The wave of Chaos hit him hard, and he nearly had to throw up the bagels he’d eaten earlier. By some miracle he managed to stay standing. He even dove to grab the ball that rolled under the bush he’d been near.
He didn’t care what it was. As long as it was dripping with Chaos, it had to die.
Enceladus hurled the knight’s weapon back at the creature, even as it hissed and spit at them, claws digging into the dirt for more purchase before lunging at him.
He barely had the energy to move, but somehow managed to get his hands in front of him. Water encased the creature, giving him time to stumble back and catch his breath.
At least his magic seemed to be working this time. Quote: Sailor Scout Attack: EngulfWater with no effects of gravity forms an encasement around the target. The purpose is more to distract, provoke, or cause minor panic if someone is adverse to being submerged in water than it is to injure. It can slow a target down, make it difficult to see, prompt the target’s diving reflex to instinctively hold their breath. The water is shallow enough to manipulate and push it away from the nose and mouth if someone is desperate. The magic will disappear when the magic is over, so targets cannot drown from inhaling the water but they may feel the sensation of drowning or choking if they do accidentally inhale the water. It lasts for 30 seconds before the water around them falls to the ground, and can leave the target winded and wet at player discretion.. This attack can be used 3 times.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 9:43 am
“Dude, you’re a Senshi?”
At least, Bilskirnir was pretty sure the homeless kid was a Senshi. Paris powered up for him before, let him see what it was like, all sparkles and pretty transformation sequences, only Paris — Ganymede — had been much stronger than this guy. Stronger than Bilskirnir, too.
The aura was warm and friendly, a contrast to the cool blues of the kid’s outfit. He threw magic at the youma and water surrounded it. Bilskirnir wondered what his power source was. Drowning? Submersion? The ocean? Or just straight up water?
While the youma was struggling, Bilskirnir went after his green crystal ball. The Senshi had made a decent throw, but magic was clearly more his forté. Baseball was Bilskirnir’s.
The youma heaved for air when the spell broke. Bilskirnir made another throw, landing a perfect strike right in the youma’s face.
Gallo better watch out. Maybe Jack would make the switch to pitcher!
“It’d be way more convenient if this thing had a string or something to pull it back with,” Bilskirnir said. “Or if I could magic it back. Accio crystal ball! Nope. Nada. Sucks, man.”
He went after it again, cursing under his breath when the thrashing youma kicked it several yards away.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 9:57 am
Enceladus stumbled a little as he tried to catch his breath. He’d been using his magic a lot recently. And not even his full magic. He’d become aware that his powers had diminished from what they once were.
The knight’s voice wasn’t familiar, but the way he spoke was, and Enceladus stared at him, as though trying to see past the Jupiter magic.
Was this the same man from before? The one with the bagels and Roxy?
There wasn’t much time to dwell on it. Nor was there much time to try and understand what the knight was saying. A bunch of random words and phrases that he didn’t know. His head was spinning too much for him to try and comprehend more than the fact that he was trying to help.
The creature was getting up, spitting and snarling angrily at the two of them. Enceladus held out his hand again and used his magic. It formed water around it ********>,” he hissed and stumbled onto his knees, coughing from the exertion he was putting into trying to cast his magic. He was so, so tired. He wondered if staying in that encasement would have been more merciful than this.
And yet, when the Chaos monster lunged out at him, he kicked it hard in its stupid, ugly face. It managed to tear his pants, just above his knee, and blood soaked quickly into the blue, but Enceladus was surprised when the creature then burst into dust.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 1:26 pm
Bilskirnir had every intention of performing a well executed slide for the save. Swoop in, save the damsel, even if the damsel in question was a skeptical, foulmouthed young man. (What was the masculine term for damsel? Was there a male equivalent? It’d be pretty shitty if there wasn’t.)
He didn’t get the chance. Blue booted foot met youma face, and the youma burst into dust.
“Damn, that was the most vicious one I’ve seen so far. You should’ve seen the one me and Val took on the night I awakened. It was almost cute. Unless that was the beer goggles.”
Bilskirnir stretched his senses enough to determine if they were in the clear, looked around for any potential witnesses, and, finding none, let his transformation fall away.
He was, indeed, the same man from before. Jack stood before the Senshi, sans bagels and Roxy, in the same jeans and winter boots, but a different coat. He moved to crouch down in front of the Senshi, drawing close enough to check his injury by sight. He didn’t get the impression that the Senshi wanted Jack to touch him, so Jack kept his hands to himself.
“You okay? I’m Jack, by the way. Or Bilskirnir. Page of Jupiter. Whichever you want to call me. Only, no, I shouldn’t go around being called Bilskirnir like this, so Jack is fine. Sorry to bust in here like that, but… I mean, after today, I was a little worried you’d try to tough it out instead of getting some help.”
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 1:41 pm
Enceladus hissed in pain now that there was no immediate danger of being eaten by a creature of Chaos, pressing his hand over the gash. He looked up at Bilskirnir -- Jack -- confused and almost helpless.
Except he couldn’t allow himself to look weak in front of anyone. Especially not a knight.
“This isn’t Jupiter,” he observed, because that seemed like the most important thing to say. Next was, “What was that thing?”
And finally… he shifted uncomfortably on the ground, still holding his leg, but since he didn’t want to be the only one with an aura around, Enceladus powered down as well. He was still wearing the jacket Jack gave him, but it meant the gash was no longer being covered by any fabric.
“Enceladus… Quinn, now,” he mumbled, and closed his eyes to try and stop the spinning.
Except that was a horrible idea, because it felt as though vertigo hit him, and he tipped over onto his side with another groan.
He was aware that this was at least the third time Jack had asked him if he was okay, and it was the third time that Quinn didn’t answer.
What was Jack going to do if he answered? Quinn wasn’t going to lie and say he was fine when he wasn’t. But there wasn’t anything that he could do about it.
“Thanks,” he said anyway, from where he’d curled up on the ground, eyes still closed against the spinning. He was just going to rest a bit and then see if he could recover the bagels he’d thrown.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 5:25 pm
Jack didn’t need the question answered. It was obvious to him that Quinn wasn’t okay, but knowing the extent to which he wasn’t okay would be helpful in determining how to assist him — if he would accept the assistance.
“Yeah, no. Uhh… this is Earth?” Jack said, more than a little confused (and mildly concerned that Quinn might be on drugs after all).
(Apparently Senshi came in all shapes, sizes, life stages, and circumstances.)
Quinn seemed lucid. Other than being in a bit of pain and maybe a little sick, nothing appeared to be wrong with him. He wasn’t acting high, just… a little off. Maybe he had a mental illness? Jack would be out of his depth with that. He’d had a few crazy significant others over the years, but more like bitchy girlfriends and insufferable boyfriends, not the mentally ill sort of crazy. (Which probably wasn’t very politically correct of him to say, which was why he didn’t. He just thought it. Sometimes.)
“You’re a Senshi but you’ve never seen a youma before?” Jack asked, hovering close in his crouch, but not yet invading Quinn’s personal space. (Unless his personal bubble was larger than the norm.) “I thought they were pretty common. That’s how Val and Ganymede made it seem, at least. Are you new? I’ve only been at this for a couple of months. Probably haven’t done it as often as I should, but I figure it can’t hurt to take it a bit slow and learn the ropes, you know?”Guine lol you thought it was done. good job skipping posts.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 5:41 pm
“Earth?” Quinn scoffed and forced himself to open an eye to look up at the Page of Jupiter. Why was a knight of Jupiter on Earth? Well… why was he on Earth?
But he seemed most offended when he was asked if he was new. <******** no, I’m not new,” he growled, although it probably did nothing to make himself look intimidating while collapsed in the slush and bleeding from his leg that was already exposed to the elements. Shorts and sandals definitely weren’t suited for Earth.
“Did you fail your training at the Academy or something? Is that why you’re here?” That was the only thing he could think of. Unless there was some kind of meeting he supposed. He was invited to them occasionally but never really left home. The name Ganymede was familiar, but it would make sense that a knight of Jupiter would know the Prince from a neighboring moon.
“Why does Earth have youma? We definitely don’t have them on Enceladus.” Or… at least they didn’t. Unless the Chaos that seemed to fill everything in his world was filling Earth.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 5:51 pm
“Uhhhhh…”
Jack was confused.
Jack was very confused. Admittedly, he hadn’t quite filled in all the gaps when it came to his knowledge of this Knight stuff yet. Chris and Paris told him a lot, but he had a feeling there was a lot more where that came from. Figuring out how much to tell him at any one time probably wasn’t easy, especially if all this had been going on for hundreds of years.
Okay, so. There were things he didn’t know, and Quinn was being weird, talking about Earth like… well, like he wasn’t from Earth.
Jack was pretty sure that wasn’t possible.
He was also pretty sure the things he used to be pretty sure about weren’t all that certain anymore. Like, magic and monsters weren’t supposed to be real, but they were. So… maybe Quinn actually could be not from Earth?
Jack hesitated. He wanted to keep asking questions, wanted to find out what Quinn was talking about, if he was making s**t up or if he was high or whatever, but Jack figured they had more important matters to attend to first. Such as Quinn being out in the cold, and obviously hurt. He was going to get sick if he wasn’t already. Hell, he could die out here. The fact that he hadn’t gone to a shelter either meant he didn’t know where it was, they didn’t have space for him, or he didn’t want to.
“Look, maybe this isn’t the best idea, but do you want to come to my place to get out of the cold for a while?” Jack said. “You can warm up, take a shower, have something to eat. We can figure out this Earth and Enceladus stuff. I’m gonna be honest, all of this magic and war stuff is new to me, so I’m probably not the best person for this, but I know people who might be able to help.”
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2023 5:52 pm
Quinn’s normal response probably would have been to refuse. He didn’t need help. He didn’t want help.
But he was pretty sure he was going to die a miserable, cold death if he didn’t figure out a way to get out of the cold.
And again came the question of what Jack wanted in return for his generocity.
There was only so much Quinn had that he could offer. But he would be lying if he said he didn’t want a chance to warm up and maybe eat something.
He chewed on his lip in contemplation. He didn’t know Jack. He assumed the Roxy would be at Jack’s home as well. But he also didn’t know anything about Earth. Didn’t know when another youma would come around. Didn’t know when another pathetic Captain of the Negaverse would slink around pretending like they wanted to help him when they just wanted to use Chaos to destroy everything.
Quinn wanted to ask who Jack knew. He wanted to ask a lot of things. Like why he seemed so confused, or what he thought he was going to get out of being so generous to a stranger. But after a few moments, Quinn nodded.
“Please,” he said, willing to take a chance on this stranger. He might be worse off for it, but he would be worse off sleeping under a bush again. With much difficulty, Quinn forced himself to sit, pushing against the ground with his hands, and then once more to stand. He hissed as pressure was put on his leg. It seemed as though the acid from that youma was doing some damage to the outer layer of his skin, so being able to wash it soon would be ideal.
He stood a little awkwardly as he waited to follow Jack, hoping he wouldn’t be left behind if he was too slow.
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