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.
Having a nightly patrol with Pyxis was always a calming experience, his friendly chatter soothing and smoothing out her usual tense readiness when it was just herself. They usually talked about their homeworlds, of course, but also the newest eateries that opened in a neighborhood, whatever action movies were now showing, Abel's latest creation, what new project Don Diablos was taking on now (it was JAWS: the Musical).
It was always nice and they had worked on a similar wavelength for years now, taking out youma, sniping and running when it came to the agents of chaos. Well, that had been Hestia's strategy for years, but now, bit by bit, it was breaking down under a steady, invisible pressure. With Pyxis, though, she was able to slip back into a more comfortable mindset and leave behind the anxiety and struggle for another night.
As nice at the talk was, it couldn't cover up the increasingly loud buzzing that seemed to be getting closer and closer to the two. Hestia shot the other senshi a mildly accusing look, as if he had summoned whatever insects were looming in the dark.
xnothing yet
Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2023 9:34 pm
For a long time after he'd learned the realities of the 'job', patrolling was not something he especially enjoyed. The guilt had taken a while to shake, as had the fear, and the dread that he might wake up one day to discover that he was still stuck in Tartarus had taken the longest to fade. But eventually, for the most part, it all got a little easier as he settled into a place that felt right.
Not going alone was the biggest contributor to this, and he was always happy to have Hestia's company as they worked to keep things safe. Relatively safe, at least.
He had been in the middle of describing some really adorable inserts that had just arrived for his next drop's new resin candy mold when he caught her look, and in his abrupt silence he realized just how loud the weird buzzing sounds had gotten.
"It's not me!" he assured her, palms held up innocently. "Mine are super cute and not, um, wow, does it sound actually kinda scary to you too?"
lizbot
Nothing Yet
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lizbot
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Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2023 9:50 pm
Brow scrunching, Hestia stilled and tried to focus her senses before shaking her head. "It's not a youma..." And then, without warning, something tried to shoot toward her head. Sadly, the thing had picked the wrong target for this surprise attack, and the maid senshi's fist went through it like tissue paper before her mind had time to even register the attack.
Guts. Bug guts had sprayed all over Hestia and Pyxis. After a couple deep breaths, she tried to calmly convey her feelings instead of turning into a heat seeking missile of rage and formerly fresh linens. "I am...extremely unhappy about this."
The buzzing intensified, filling the nearby shadows.
Nothing Yet
Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2023 1:29 pm
Careful to keep quiet and listen as Hestia worked to get a sense of their surroundings - knowing full well that he did not excel whatsoever in the way that she did at this - Pyxis was doomed to receive every bit of bug splatter that came his way.
"Oh noooooooooo..." he wailed out, arms spread out as he surveyed the terrible effects. Before he had any time to relate how very unhappy about this he was too, the proximity of the rabid buzzing sound became impossible to ignore.
In a panic, he jumped backwards and cried out a 'firefly flash!', directing his own (much cuter) insects towards the shadows.
Quote:
Firefly Flash: A focused swarm of firefly lights that temporarily blinds/stuns the target.
lizbot
Nothing Yet
Obsessive Stargazer
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lizbot
No Faun
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Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2023 2:28 pm
Hestia didn't bother with her own magic attacks, the aimed nature of one and the ground target of the other both unsuitable, unlike Pyxis's "super cute" little friends, who could collectively maneuver and surround. While the attackers that had closed in bobbed in a daze, the opted for a very cool spinning hick kick instead, viciously sending one of the giant insects smashing through another.
The combined splash of guts missed the two senshi entirely this time. "That made me feel much better," she stated calmly and fully in control of her violent disgust.
xNothing Yet
Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2023 10:32 pm
The light from his fireflies gave Pyxis a better look at the Insects that were so loudly humming around them, and he really, really kind of wished that they hadn't. The first of the bugs that made the choice to attack them had exploded so quickly into that awful yucky goo as soon as Hestia attacked it - too quickly for him to make out what it was - but now he was faced with the sight of them in a way that he definitely couldn't ignore.
They looked like some kind of mutant creatures from an old horror movie, their oversized mandibles dripping with something that seemed just as unpleasant as the bugs themselves did. He wrinkled his nose in disgust as he saw their features highlighted over and over again by the flickering light of the summoned Insects that surrounded them, instinctively flinching after Hestia's (indeed very cool) kick, expecting to get covered in even more splattered...whatever they were.
"Nice! Yeah!" He cheered, and snatched up a branch the bugs must have chewed through at some point. A bit helpless against them otherwise, he did his best to swat the insects away any time they tried to dive into them again. "Do you think we can crunch them all? Or maybe - will they just keep coming outta nowhere?"
lizbot
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2023 9:25 pm
Nodding in approval at the branch, Hestia noted that some of the places on their uniforms hit by bug juice were a little eaten away. Civilians in regular clothing would probably suffer far worse if they ran into this swarm of...mutant flies. Adjusting her neck she surveyed the buzzing enemies that had begun to regroup. Maybe these would be it. Maybe they'd be fighting these menaces until morning dawned.
Pulling a pair of sunglasses out of her personal space, Hestia slipped them on and shifted her position until she was standing back to back with Pyxis. "We take them out."
This time it wasn't rage motivating her into violence so much as it was the cool action hero factor.
It didn't take long for the two to actually finish off the swarm, they were fast but ultimately delicate creatures. The biggest casualties were their uniforms. By the end, they were so covered in bug guts that Hestia used her super attack on her and Pyxis in order to feel human enough to make it to an alleyway to depower back into clean clothes. The rest of the night involved a lot of showers.
