Prompt 15: Shock Mark
Thunderstorms are common this time of year, but what’s not common is the number of people reported being struck by lightning. Strangely, people are surviving with only minor, if any, injuries at all. Being struck can feel like a static shock, or can feel like a sudden flash of heat, and targets are left with a strange lightning mark across their body. Though the marks will fade, for their duration–up to a full week after being struck, you might notice that you are more prone to static shocking yourself or others, and you may notice electronics charging or overcharging and malfunctioning. The marks can take longer to fade at player discretion, or players may choose for them to leave pale scars, but otherwise there are no lasting effects.
Vaylin collected her laptop from the desk she had been sitting at, her final class of the day ended and she needed to get to work. She passed by a group of female classmates engaged in a spirited discussion of the local gossip. "Hey Crystal you going home girl?" One of the girls Vaylin was decently acquainted with asked her as she moved to leave the classroom. "No, I'm off to my job." The undercover alien replied. "Oh be careful going home tonight then. It's supposed to storm again tonight." "There's been a ton of thunderstorms lately." One girl complained. "I heard a lot of people have been hit by lightning." Another girl chimed in. "No way they'd be filling up the hospital if that were true." The girls began to bicker.
"Thanks, I'll make sure to stay safe. You girls should be careful getting home too." Vaylin said smiling and waving goodbye as she exited into the hall. 'Thunderstorms?' She thought about what the girls had said, it was true there had been a lot of storms recently. It got her thinking how much energy did lightning harness. She had seen Jupiter knights and certain senshi harness the elemental force in their magic. She wondered if it might be worth her time to research these storms to see if the energy of them would be worth harnessing for the sake of Velencya. She decided she would run some tests tonight to get data on these storms.
After she had finished closing up the daycare after work Vaylin slipped into the shadows changing into her uniform and removing her glamor. She summoned her sword from subspace just in case she ran into any trouble while she was running her tests. Sure enough just like her classmates had warned her, it was storming with thunder and lightning lighting up the night sky. She decided it would be best to run her tests from a high place so she headed for a nearby office building. She jumped up the fire escape of the building with ease owing to both her training and her Velencian genetics. The lightning and thunder was crackling and booming all around, it reminded her of some of the battles she had been a part of since coming to Earth. She began to take readings of the lightning jotting down the results. However as she was taking notes one of the bolts of lightning suddenly struck her sending volts coursing through her body. She stopped in her tracks when the bolt hit her. She expected it to hurt like hell, maybe not kill her but she definitely would have thought lightning would do more damage to her but instead she just felt a hot flash on her back where the bolt hit her, more akin to a static shock rather than actual electrocution, it wasn't pleasant but it plenty tolerable. After taking a few breaths to calm herself down she finished collecting her data and went home.
The next morning Vaylin woke up to the alarm on her human phone going off. Still half asleep she reached around for her phone to turn off the alarm, as she finally grabbed it she heard a crackling sound and felt a static shock that fully woke her up, as she looked at the screen it was clearly malfunctioning. "That's weird." She grumbled but she could take care of that after she had a shower and got herself ready for the day. As she was finishing up in the bathroom after her shower she glanced in the mirror and noticed a pale scar in the shape of a branching lightning bolt marring her blue skin and running the length of her spine. "What in Velenia's name?" She wondered as she gazed at the scar. Then she remembered getting hit by the lightning bolt, that must have caused some kind of change in her physiology, charged her body with electricity. "I think I need to do more research on that lightning." She muttered.
word count: 670