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 Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2023 8:01 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… Note: These creatures are a violent alien species that are aggressive and eager to destroy. They will attack everyone and everything within sight. The insects can fly, spit acid, and will try to burrow into the ground to hide. They are very fast and difficult to see. This RP can be used as a battle requirement for a character, separate from your ‘one youma battle’ per stage if there are two powered characters involved; you cannot write a solo and count this as a battle, and your character must be powered and interacting with another player’s powered character for it to count. This can only be used as a battle requirement once per character, but there is no limitation for how many times a player can use this prompt.
Now she still couldn’t enjoy it, because of the bugs.
“Ugh,” she said, and stomped on one. It made a disgusting crunch beneath her heels. “This is disgusting.”
There were so many. And they were so loud. She knew giant cicadas like this weren’t normal, otherwise she would’ve seen them back in Raleigh, too, which meant these things had to be a new species. Or alien bugs.
She stomped on another one, getting bug guts all over her shoes.Yvoire, on the other hand, generally didn’t mind bugs. Sure, they were kind of gross, but Daddy used to help him hold them so he wouldn’t develop a fear of them. He could catch spiders in the house and bring them outside instead of killing them. He could deal with roaches and crickets if he absolutely had to. He liked ladybugs and butterflies. He loved bees, even though some of them could sting.
But these things… Cynthus was right. They were disgusting. Bugs should never be this big. They should never be this loud. They should never spit acid.
Yvoire let out an embarrassing shriek as one came at his face. He ducked out of the way and threw his hands at his hair, trying to knock the giant cicada away.
“Where did these things come from?!”
His hat fell off of his head with the cicada on top. Yvoire shrieked again and kicked it, horrified that it had come so close to touching him.
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Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2023 8:04 pm
Reims was maybe morbidly fascinated by these giant insects. They were horrifying, and he didn’t want to touch them, but they were interesting to look at.
Apparently they didn’t like being looked at.
And they were huge. How Cynthus could get one under her shoe to even crush them was beyond him.
“Are you okay, Evie?” he asked in alarm when Yvoire shrieked, and he quickly turned to make sure he wasn’t injured. He was concerned about Cynthus too, who was just going around stepping on them.
“You know, this is the perfect time for a really big one to get mad at you for stepping on their kin,” he grimaced. He saw that in an old movie once. But the giant bug was an alien.
Wait, were these aliens?
He didn’t like how some of the bigger ones in the trees were just looking at them.
“Maybe we should head back,” he suggested, risking sounding cowardly. But he couldn’t fight off all these bugs and keep the other two safe at the same time.
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Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2023 8:05 pm
Cynthus only got the bugs under her feet so she wouldn’t have to touch them. It wasn’t always easy. They could fly, after all. Sometimes she had to kick and crush them against something instead of stomping down. It meant her shoes were filthy, but they’d be good as new the next time she powered up.
“Then the really big one can eat one of us and we can bust out of it and kill it from the inside,” she said.
Reims wasn’t the only one who’d seen that old movie.
Not that Cynthus wanted that to happen. She’d rather not get eaten, or covered in bug goo. If only they had big alien-killer guns! That would make this so much easier. Instead, she swung at one of the bugs with her crook when it flew at her. If she were playing baseball, it would’ve been a strike.
Maybe she should have her cousin teach her how to swing a bat better. She could pretend she wanted to impress his hot teammates or something.
Well… she could have Reims teach her instead, probably, but she didn’t want to give him anything to hold over her head in case he felt like acting like a jerk again. (He didn’t do it as much when they were powered up, but there was always a risk.)“I’m okay…” Yvoire agreed.
He was embarrassed by how weak his voice sounded. He didn’t want to be afraid, or grossed out. He wanted to be strong and competent. There were worse things in the city than giant bugs. Hell, he’d been brave enough before to take on a bear-monster on his own! These bugs should be a piece of cake compared to that!
But there were so many. Cynthus squished one and more came out of hiding. They were never going to get them all, not without taking acid to the face.
Yvoire managed to kick the one that’d come for him away from his hat. He bent to pick the hat up, returning it to his head, letting his hair fall into his face to hide the red in his cheeks.
It wasn’t the first time Reims had called him “Evie,” but now that they’d solved the problem of Stirling’s starseed, Yvoire wasn’t so lost to his own misery that the use of the nickname escaped his notice. He liked it. “Evie” was cute, and easier for people to say than “Yvoire.”
“I can tell Ganymede about them,” Yvoire offered, jumping at the opportunity to get away from the bugs. “I bet she could get all of them with her magic.”
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Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2023 8:06 pm
Yvoire was mentioning Ganymede again. There was a weird feeling of anxiety that flared up whenever this Princess was mentioned. Reims hadn’t met her, but he didn’t like the idea of anyone telling them what they should and shouldn’t be doing.
They’d gone to Lysithea for help, but she acted as though they were in elementary school, and not just a few years younger than she looked.
Or maybe she reminded him of his mother too much. Or even his brother.
He was distracted too much to realize that one of those bugs was crawling up closer to him until it tried biting his ankle. Reims hissed in surprise and quickly kicked it away.
“Yeah, why isn’t she out here taking care of this problem? Or any of those other Princesses?” he scoffed, straightening up some as he tried to ignore the way his ears were burning.
“They have the power to actually do stuff, so they should be out here. Not us kids.” That’s what they would be told, right? Sometimes he thought Cynthus was the lucky one. Ephesus and Amarynthos, too. They didn’t have a Princess. They had the Code. Technically they all did, but others acted as though a Princess was the be all, end all, and it was quickly wearing on him from distrust to full aversion.
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Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2023 8:07 pm
Cynthus only cared about Princesses because she thought it was cool that they existed at all, though she was beginning to realize that Senshi Princesses and princesses of the blood were different things. Seeing as her dad let her get away with a lot of nonsense, Cynthus didn’t take too well to authority figures either.
But if it meant they didn’t have to deal with these bugs…
Cynthus whacked at the one that went for Reims. It skittered away, then doubled back and tried to bite at her ankles. Bad move on its part; Cynthus was ready for it. She brought her foot down hard and got her revenge with a satisfying (and quite sickening) crunch.Yvoire took Reims by the arm and encouraged him back a few steps, hoping to get them both out of range of the bugs, even if only temporarily.
“I don’t really know any of the other Princesses,” he said, though it wasn’t much of an explanation. Yvoire didn’t have a lot of answers. Though a part of him understood Reims’ resentment—maybe even shared it—Yvoire felt… judged, almost. “But… Ganymede’s not so bad.”
Yvoire liked her. She was kind, and supportive. She had answers. But he also knew her outside of the war. That certainly helped build a rapport.
He didn’t know enough about Reims to make an accurate assessment, but the other boy seemed very much alone in this.
“I think we’re doing alright,” Yvoire mumbled, feeling guilty now that he’d suggested anything other than handling the problem themselves. “Just—... We don’t have magic and it’ll take forever to get rid of these things one by one, so…”
Yvoire trailed off. Maybe it wasn’t worth it to explain himself.Cynthus didn’t care either way—if they dealt with the bugs, or left them to someone else.
Actually, her shoes were getting really gross. If she kept this up, she might get bug guts all the way up to her shins.
“So we should definitely make someone else deal with them,” Cynthus finished Yvoire’s train of thought.
If they were the ones telling someone else what to do about it, then they’d be the ones exerting authority, and if this Ganymede ignored Yvoire and left these bugs here instead of getting rid of them with whatever fancy magic she had, then she’d be the a*****e who let a swarm destroy the city, not them.
Whatever. It made sense to Cynthus.
When the another bug came at her, she managed a successful swing and knocked it away. At the next lull in activity, Cynthus backed away closer to Reims and Yvoire. It didn’t seem as if they’d made much of a dent in the infestation.
Where did these things come from?
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Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2023 8:08 pm
Reims made a disgusted face when guts went flying everywhere from under Cynthus’s shoe, but was grateful for the pull on his arm to take a few steps away.
He considered the smaller Page for a few moments. It wasn’t as though he wanted to be out there, killing bugs when someone much stronger than them could come and do it. How many of these Princesses were there, anyway? He’d already heard of (sort of) three. So there was probably a lot of them.
“Alright, Evie. I trust you, so if you say she’s not so bad, then she’s not so bad,” he agreed with a nod, and then turned to reach out for Cynthus’s arm to pull her away from the oncoming bugs as well.
“Let’s get cleaned up somewhere. This is gross,” he decided. They were just kids after all. They didn’t need to be dealing with disgusting bugs when they could be getting ice cream or something. Maybe he would suggest that once they got Cynthus’s shoes rinsed off a bit.
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