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 Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 4:30 pm
Quote: Insidious Insects (18 ) : In the first week of July, the area around the tree is just buzzing. The call of the cicadas is loud and droning, and it’s constant. You start to hear it all over town, too. All sorts of insects seem attracted to the strange pods, and it’s not uncommon to find nearly any species curiously investigating. If you listen closely, you notice something else strange–it’s not just the bugs that you see making the familiar call of the cicada. It seems like it’s coming from inside the pods, too. Any pod that wasn’t leaking sap suddenly begins to snap open, and giant cicadas, crawl out. Their full wingspan can reach up to a foot and they’re hungry–and angry. It seems like the pods that were leaking sap were slowly rotting, but the ones that didn’t leak were being eaten from the inside out–and now that the cicadas have run out of food, they’re out for anything they can find. Though there are several notable differences between these insects and the common cicadas, their low, chirping wail makes them easy to find–as well as the fact that they spit acid. These bugs are incredibly hostile and will attack indiscriminately, powered or unpowered, human or alien, day or night. They have a protective shell that makes them easy to crush but they’re hardly the most menacing foe you’ve faced–but if they reproduce, you could be in some real trouble. Better to crush them now before they become Destiny City’s next invasive species…
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Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 4:32 pm
If there was one thing that she and her cousin were in total agreement on, it was that neither of them wanted little Robin to come visit them in the US–
Or to be more specific neither of them wanted Robin to visit them in Destiny City.
After all the city could be strange at the best of times and at the worst? Well between weird and creepy game boards and murderous giant spiders it could actually be pretty dangerous - and that was without factoring the powered stuff that she and her cousin were both part of.
Which was why Saffron had been pretty horrified when Rianna had called out of the blue and told her that she was considering bringing Robin over during the summer–
And that it might be a nice surprise for Arian.
Surprise, yes. Nice probably not.
She’d done her best to try and dissuade Rianna, although it wasn’t as if Saffron could tell her the real reason why she was less than keen for her to bring her eleven year old cousin over for a flying visit.
In the end she had decided to put the potential Rianna problem to one side, and spend some time powered up as Iðavöllr and perhaps wander over to take a look at this year’s wishing tree.
Iðavöllr hadn’t reached it, a low chirping wail as she was passing the park causing the Polaris Page to pause.Strickenized Sorry that this start took longer than planned to get up Strick. I got eaten by work and a 3500 odd solo. Hope this start works but let me know if not and I will tweak it :3
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Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2023 6:56 am
Haspira, now Psilomelane, had been heading away from the wishing tree when she heard it, too. She'd heard June bugs before, and a number of summery insect sounds included in nature videos intended to get people to sleep, but none of them set her on edge the way these did. She wasn't particularly afraid of insects either, and found them to be more of a nuisance than anything, though their presence was well appreciated for plant life.
She suspected she was anthropomorphizing when she shouldn't have been, and she knew she was more likely to do so if she didn't get enough human contact for too many days. She may well have reached that point to be thinking of that low, ominous buzzing as something malevolent. Surely it was only people who acted with ill intention like that.
She considered teleporting, but there was someone else walking into the woods too. A White Moon aura by feel, something like the good and wholesome equivalent of an agent. Psilomelane had met knights before, and found them no less troublesome than their senshi counterparts. Could they have been the origin of the buzzing?
No, she found, in perhaps the worst manner possible. Something cracked beside her, but it wasn't the same snap that a bone or a twig would make. As she looked to her right, she found that some kind of leaking pod had opened up, and inside it rested a cicada the size of her palm. Her blood ran cold with an unfamiliar fear, vacating her limbs and leaving her feeling leaden in the face of something that would, hopefully, not notice her.
Except notice her it did, and she took off running, hoping that the knight in these woods was feeling particularly charitable with their weapon today.
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Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2023 6:02 pm
She was picking up on another aura too come to think of it, although the aura did not have a feel of the more warm auras that she was coming to associate with Order, rather there was something more unsettling, like a chill, that reminded her of something that Iðavöllr couldn’t quite put a finger on.
She put the thought aside, as she belatedly realised that the chirping wail appeared to be getting closer too.
She was going to regret this. Even as she started stepping in the direction of the approaching wailing sound Iðavöllr just knew that she was going to regret this–
But she continued moving towards the sound anyway, even though a part of her knew that this was Destiny City and she most definitely knew better.
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Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2023 5:36 pm
"Hope you have a weapon!" Psilomelane called in the direction of the knight's aura. "Magical bugs are after me!"
She didn't say it to be intimidating, and in retrospect, Psilomelane was sure she could have phrased that better. But when she was running on injured legs with gigantic bugs flying after her, she was going to give herself a pass for not being the most socially suave. They buzzed at her back in an angry torrent, and one sprayed the back of her arm with some acidic, abrasive liquid. Psilomelane yelped for it.
Finally, the person she thought was a knight came into view. "I won't hurt you," she tried as she quickly closed the distance, "But I could really use your help!"
And, evidently, the bugs could use a second target, for they started to fan out between both knight and senshi. It was as if any living organism that wasn't them deserved their torment.litian sorry i couldn't make this longer, but i injured my hand and it hurts to type
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Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2023 5:21 pm
Iðavöllr picked up on the aura first, a not quite rightness to the aura that was similar to that night towards the end of last January when a senshi (that Liryn had called a corrupted senshi) had tried to make off with the small mauvian.
Tried.
Iðavöllr still wasn’t quite sure what had happened and she hadn’t stayed long enough to try and find out even with the senshi having upped and disappeared somehow.
Not that she’d need to find the source of this particular aura given that it almost seemed like it was heading in her direction–
Or at least felt that way.
The source turned out to be a woman, with streaks of green and blue in her brown hair, and something that jingled-jangled as she ran in her direction.
The source of the chirping wails appeared to be headed in her direction too, and that coupled with the other’s 'greeting' left Iðavöllr with an ominous feeling.
"Uh.."
Yes she had a 'weapon', if it could even be called that - although Iðavöllr wasn’t sure that the christmas tree ornament was exactly going to do much, especially when she caught sight of the bugs.
As in plural bugs.
As in giant bugs that were fanning out as if they had spotted their latest meal or something.
One of them spit something in her direction, but hit the branch of a nearby tree instead causing it buckle and crack.
Iðavöllr tried to hide a gulp as she eyed the other woman.
"I don’t think my weapon’s going to do much against those things" she admitted, because her 'weapon' was a christmas tree ornament. "But I’ll try to help anyway because those things are looking at us like they think we’re their next meal and I’d rather not be on their menu."
And yes maybe she was exaggerating and maybe she was simply imaging the predatory way that the wailing bugs were fanning out–
But this was Destiny City and Iðavöllr really didn’t want to end up finding herself being proven right.Strickenized I hope your hand gets better soon Strick and that you have a good trip
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Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2023 6:45 pm
Great, of all the powered life she could run across in this city, she encountered a Page with a Christmas ornament for a weapon. At that rate, they were better off using the branch that broke off under that acid spit that the bugs were shooting into the air. There was little that either of them could do about their circumstances in such short notice, though, and Psilomelane knew they would have to make the best of it if they wanted to get through this unscathed.
Well, relatively unscathed. She'd already had cuts, scratches, and burn marks where she ran into other insects and overgrown bugbears over the past couple weeks. She didn't care to add to it with this swarm of insects, either.
"Then let's keep running," she puffed out at the Page. Had her magic worked any other way, she could've gotten the bugs to attack the Page instead and dumped the entire problem on her. But the bugs were smart enough to look for the weakest target there, and if Psilomelane used her magic, then she was drawing the bugs to herself. But, maybe she wouldn't have to look so far for a way to solve her problem.
If the Page decided to run with her, then Psilomelane could always outrun her as a Super. And if the girl proved faster than her, somehow, then all Psilomelane needed to do was get her to trip.
She spared a glance back as she ran and one of the bugs spat in her direction, catching the hem of her skirts. The disgusting ichor melted clean through, a reminder that they shouldn't dally around these dangerous things.
"If we can find a building, we can shut them out and find weapons. Hurry!"
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Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2023 2:26 pm
"I…" Iðavöllr started, only to break off what she was saying rapidly as a couple more of the bugs looked liked they were about to join their fellow bug in spitting more of the substance that she didn’t really want to get too up close and personal to–
Like seriously didn’t want to get too up close and personal to the stuff, given what said ‘liquid’ had done to the tree.
"You know what running sounds like a good idea" she said as she turned to follow the senshi in running, because if ever there was a time for discretion in valour then that time was probably now.
Although she wasn’t counting on the other, being so much faster than herself - especially since the other looked like she had kind of been through the wars - and that was putting it mildly.
"Where the.." puff "Hell" puff "Did those" puff puff "Things come from?" Iðavöllr asked in between puffs of breath that she certainly wasn't going to admit to, although she wasn't sure if the other woman had actually heard her.
The chirping wails from behind her, however, was a very good motivator in getting Iðavöllr to try and pick up the pace, with a part of her glad of the gym classes that she (or rather Saffron) had been keeping up with.
Still try was very much the operative word and the bugs very much sounded like they were getting closer despite her efforts.
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Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2023 6:31 pm
Good, they were both running now. Psilomelane knew she could outrun a Page; while she wasn't the best runner the Negaverse had, it was difficult to argue with a superior rank. And with the bugs being so incessant about stalking them, it was better for her if they thought this Page was the easier target.
Psilomelane certainly thought she was. While the girl asked questions, Psilomelane didn't answer. Let her waste her breath. Psilomelane needed hers to push herself just a little farther —
And once she was ahead just enough, she turned to the side and kicked out at the girl's legs, hoping to trip her and send her sprawling. If she did, then the bugs were all hers. Psilomelane could run the rest of the way without having so many of those awful bugs tailing her anymore.
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Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2023 3:34 pm
Mayhaps Iðavöllr had been too trusting, had been too assuming that the other had no ulterior motive, but the kick had seemed to come out of nowhere as a foot collided with the heavy overdress that made up the majority of her Page uniform–
And whilst the heaviness of said uniform was enough to cushion the blow somewhat, it was not enough to save her balance.
Neither was the arms that flailed out automatically, and snagged momentarily on overly long hair as Iðavöllr fought and ultimately lost her balance and tumbled down.
Again the heaviness of her overdress was somewhat useful in making the collision with the ground a little less harsh than it could have been–
But she was still stuck with the advancing acid (or something very close to acid) spewing bugs.
It was enough to focus the mind enough for her to push herself up and back on her feet, but the bugs were still a lot closer than they had been and closing the gap ever faster.
She wasn’t sure what made her summon the brittle pod out of subspace, had in truth almost forgotten that she had it, but in desperation Iðavöllr squeezed her eyes shut as she hurled the pod in the direction of the approaching bugs.
She didn’t see the pod sail through the air or see it disintegrate as it hit the ground, neither did she see the way how the bugs paused as the harsh light that burst out in the wake of the pod’s disintegration blinded them–
But she could see the glow of light from beneath closed eyelids as she turned awkwardly before Iðavöllr opened her eyes so that she could run.Quote: The Brittle Seed Pod is dry and brown; it feels as though it will crumble if you squeeze it too tightly, however if you hurl the pod onto the ground it will explode in a harsh light that will blind everyone in the area for up to two minutes. The light does not discriminate, so make sure that if you are using it you close your eyes before it hits the ground! This item can only be used once and will completely disintegrate upon use! If you return to the scene after the explosion you may find up to three clear marbles that glisten with small, iridescent fireworks inside. They catch the light beautifully and can be kept as mementos. Strickenized apologies that this took me so long Strick, work's been crazy recently
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Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2023 10:31 am
The intention was to cut and run. Don't look back. Don't spare a minute on the girl on the ground. She had every motivation to leave her there, after all.
But out of an inexplicable and irresistible curiosity, Psillomelane looked back. The girl fell, certainly, but she wasn't lying there like a helpless victim to be assaulted by the bugs. She'd gotten something in her hand, though where it came from, Psilomelane could only guess it was subspace. She doubted that anything would help her with such a swarm of pests bearing down on her, but she threw the thing at the ground like it was a live grenade.
And it may as well have been a flash grenade, for how suddenly and thoroughly Psilomelane was blinded by looking in that direction. She winced, grunting her displeasure at the splitting headache it imparted on her, but she pushed herself to keep stumbling forward, to keep moving away from the knight on the ground and the bugs that would soon have their meal (or whatever it was they did).
She couldn't blink the great, dark spots out of her eyes, however, nor could she hear much of the buzzing anymore. She supposed that the knight was able to get rid of them with that gadget, and likely enough, she'd be coming after Psilomelane next with more of them. All the more reason to keep moving then, even as she tripped over roots or stumbled into tree trunks while her eyes watered over from the flash.
It was a good time to start trying to teleport, though. She didn't need to see to imagine what her office looked like, and she had space enough from the bugs and any other pests (at the moment) that she could concentrate. Then maybe she could see about her eyes and if there was any corneal damage.
With a sigh, Psilomelane pulled the image together in her thoughts. Then, along with a great deal of energy, she was gone.
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