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 Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2023 8:50 pm
Quote: Eight-legged Issues ( 8 ) - Small webs have begun to appear all over Destiny City at an alarming pace. The thin strands of webbing are surprisingly resilient and can be difficult to break, but that’s to be expected when you’ve got the charm of Destiny City’s unnatural wildlife. At least you’re not dealing with the car sized spiders of a few years ago. While the webs appear with great frequency all over the city, it can be difficult to see the spiders themselves. They are about an inch long at their largest, but even if they were smaller, it wouldn’t matter. They are almost completely invisible. When on their webs, they look like morning dew. When on you? Same thing. Thankfully, these spiders seem to want to keep to themselves, but it’s hard to do that when you can’t see them. If agitated, the spiders will bite. They have a unique. Being bitten can cause nausea, dizziness, fatigue and hallucinations. These symptoms can begin immediately after being bitten or can manifest up to a few hours after the toxins are introduced to the bloodstream. These symptoms may only last for a few hours—or up to a few days. No medicine seems to help this ailment, so you’re stuck weathering this one out on your own.
Oh, this was bad. Dering hadn’t been out for too long tonight but he’d found himself in a very strange predicament already. He’d been out on patrol–if you could call it that, he was really just walking around–when he’d nearly tripped over something.
He’d managed to catch himself by hopping on one foot, but it wasn’t a particularly graceful effort, and now he was stuck, standing on one leg, trying to free himself.
He was going to have to suck it up because he could get free, it was just going to involve letting himself fall so he could free his shoe.
Dering wasn’t happy about this, but he’d been standing on one foot for so long that his leg was going numb. No one else was around! He could just get this over with real fast and–
Okay. He could do this.
He just had to twist his foot a little and lean forward, and–
Just as Dering toppled forward, he felt the energy signature of another Page. He was red before he hit the ground, but he scrambled up quickly and tried to brush himself off. He was seated on the ground, one leg bent, and grabbed his shoe so he could start tugging.
…Hopefully before the page nearby found him looking so pathetic.
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Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2023 9:03 pm
But as she was walking, she felt a strange energy signature nearby. It was faint, but she could definitely sense it. She wondered if it was another Page like herself, or maybe something else entirely. Deciding to investigate, she followed the energy signature until she found herself in a deserted alleyway. There, lying on the ground, was another knight with one leg bent awkwardly. He was clutching his shoe and trying to free himself. Ngome could sense the embarrassment and frustration radiating from him. Without hesitation, she rushed over to him and offered to help. "Need some help?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 8:25 pm
He didn’t want to accept; his face was red but he managed to flash her a quick smile. “I–maybe.” He’d tugged his shoe free and quickly shoved his foot into it, but he was bent at such an odd angle that he suspected he should swallow his pride and actually accept the offer.
“I thought I heard something out here, I thought it was a youma,” he explained. “But when I got back here, there wasn’t anything. Just–oh, watch your step. I got stuck in that spiderweb.” He nodded towards the shoebox sized web that was still completely intact. He gave it an incredulous look; he’d tripped over it and torn his shoe free and it still looked as though it were in pristine, undamaged condition.
“It’s really sticky. I–would it be too much of a bother, if I could borrow your hand? I can get up on my own otherwise! I just–I need a minute. I appreciate you checking on me, though. Really.”
He was glad it was a Knight and not a Negaverse Agent.
Actually–speaking of Knights…
He knew that symbol.
“Oh! You’re a Lysithea Knight, too? I’m Dering. It’s nice to meet you.”
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 4:35 pm
Ngome smiled warmly at Dering as she extended her hand to help him up. "I'm Ngome. Nice to meet you too." As she helped him up, she couldn't help but notice the way he limped slightly. "Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself when you fell?" Ngome wanted to ignore the spiderweb part. Spiderwebs meant spiders and she didn't like them or any creepy crawling bug. She had heard that they were appearing all over Destiny City. She had even heard that last year it was bad, they had massive car sized spiders. She shivered. "Is this common in Destiny City? I've been hearing a lot about strange occurrences lately."
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Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 6:06 pm
Dering had accepted her hand with a soft word of thanks and once he was on his feet, he quickly brushed himself off in an effort to make himself look more presentable.
“I’m okay, I just twisted it a little. Thank you.” He tested putting some weight on it, and while it was a bit sore it didn’t hurt. He didn’t have to worry that he’d sprained it, or worse.
“I think weird things are always happening around here, but it’s hard to tell if it’s some unnatural thing we just got unlucky enough to deal with or, you know. The Negaverse.”
A frown settled on his face at the thought of them but he was quick to push it away as he half-turned again to examine the webs.
“This doesn’t feel like a youma, though. I’d be happy to hear that it was just some Fall spider or something, but…Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve only been doing this for a few months. What about you?”
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 4:28 pm
Ngome nodded in agreement with Dering.
"Strange things do seem to happen quite often in Destiny City. It's hard to tell what's normal and what's not," she said with a sigh. "As for me, I've been a Knight for about a few months now. I'm still learning as I go, but I've seen my fair share of strange things. It's been a wild ride so far. But it's worth it, you know? Knowing that we're making a difference and protecting people from all the crazy stuff out there."
She was happy to have met another Lysithea knight.
She examined the spiderweb closely, trying to see if there was anything unusual about it. It looked like a normal spiderweb, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something off about it.
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Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2023 7:14 am
Dering didn’t warn Ngome to be careful; if she’d been doing this for a few months already, he suspected that she knew what her limits were and what to watch out for. He didn’t have any plan to get too close to the spiderweb; he’d already gotten trapped on it once and he wasn’t really aching to get too familiar with whatever had made it.
“That’s true,” he agreed, even if he didn’t really feel like he’d made that big of a difference. “I’ve met a lot of really neat people, too. Powerful ones, brave ones. I really admire them.”
He wasn't so brave himself but he was doing his best. He didn’t have much in the way of fighting drive but protecting people was important. Helping them was important.
He didn’t want anyone to get hurt, and even if he didn’t understand why he was a knight when there must have been so many other candidates, he wasn’t going to let this power go to waste.
“Do you have people that you go out with? You know, to have your back while you’re patrolling? It’s safer that way…”
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Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2023 7:37 pm
"No, I do not have anyone to go patrolling with. You are the second night that I have found since being a Knight."It was nice to know that she was not alone in this fight. She looked over at one of the spiderwebs.
"Do you think they will eventually disappear on their own? I just hope no one gets hurt by them in any sort of way."She hoped that they didn't spread and get worse. She shuddered to think that there could be some kind of creepy crawling creature on them.
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Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 11:41 am
“I don’t know,” Dering admitted. “I haven’t seen any spiders to even know who is making them–or why they need so many of them.”
He had the strange sensation of something crawling over him but he suspected it was just his imagination. He brushed his hands off on his uniform instinctively but still felt a bit uneasy.
“And that one isn’t broken yet even though I tripped over it. It felt like tripping over a net or something.” He didn’t want to admit that he was afraid to try poking at it in case his finger got stuck, but he looked around and perked up when he saw an old pipe.
“I mean…” Walking over to the pipe, Dering grimaced as he lifted it. Covered in dirt and rust, it wasn’t exactly a pretty thing, but he had gloves at least to protect him.
He returned to the web and, sucking in a little breath, reluctantly poked it.
The web didn’t break. He poked it again, each time harder than the last, and the strings held fast. By the fourth poke, the pipe was sticking pretty solidly to the web.
“It’s just strange. I don’t know what to do about it. I mean, I guess we don’t have to worry about a lot of people coming back here? But if there are more…”
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Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2023 4:35 pm
Ngome watched as Dering poked the web with the pipe. It was strange how strong the web was, and she couldn't help but wonder what kind of spider could create something like this. She shuddered at the thought of a car-sized spider but pushed the thought out of her mind. Ngome wasn't sure what to do about the spiderwebs. She was new to all this knight stuff and from what she knew there wasn't anyone higher up to report to. She had a feeling that she and Dering were on their own with this problem. "I don't know what to do either," she admitted with a sigh. "But we can't just leave these spiderwebs here. They could hurt someone or worse." She thought for a moment, then an idea struck her. "Maybe we could try burning them? Fire usually works against spiderwebs."
Ngome was a little hesitant to suggest burning the spiderwebs, but she couldn't think of any other solution. She looked at Dering to see if he had any objections to the plan. "What do you think?" she asked him.
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Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2023 1:11 pm
Dering considered for a moment, and while he had a bit of concern that they might be too flammable, he realized he was probably just worried about the worst case scenario.
He nodded after a moment. “I think that will work better than this. I’m not weak,” he insisted. Well, not that weak. He poked the web with more force to emphasize that it really was that durable.
“...But I don’t have a lighter or anything.” He looked up at her, hopeful. “Did you bring one?”
It would have been smart to have an emergency pack but he didn’t exactly have the means or resources to prepare one.
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2023 7:09 pm
Ngome shook her head. "No, I didn't bring one," she said apologetically. "But maybe we can find something else to start a fire with. There's bound to be something around here that we can use." She looked around, trying to spot anything that could be used to start a fire. Her eyes landed on a pile of dry leaves nearby. "Hey, what about those leaves? They look dry enough to catch fire easily.". Ngome pointed to a pile of dry-looking leaves.
"Let's see if those would work. We can gather a handful and stack them next to one of the spiderwebs and see if that would work."Ngome walked over to the pile of leaves and carefully picked up a handful. They crumpled in her hand, and she could tell they were dry enough to burn easily. She walked back to Dering and held out the leaves. she asked him, hoping that they could find a solution to the spiderweb problem without anyone getting hurt. Ngome wasn't so sure about these kinds of things, but she did see a documentary somewhere about fires. The leaves seemed to her to be dry enough to catch fire easily. At least that was what she hoped.
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Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2023 7:08 pm
“Um, okay.” Dering wasn’t entirely sure what she had in mind without something to light them, but he trusted her nonetheless and hurried to help her gather a few more leaves. He scattered them around the web, adding to her pile as much as he was making sure to sprinkle the leaves on the web itself. At the very least, it would be more obvious that something was there and would–hopefully–prevent someone from getting stuck in it or tripping on it.
His face was still red with embarrassment because that was not the first impression he’d wanted to make, especially for other Knights of Lysithea.
He didn’t know the first thing about starting fires–especially without a match, at least. He was too young to buy a lighter, and even if he had thought to get matches, he didn’t really have any income or anyone to ask for them–and if they found them while he was at Hillworth?
Dering really didn’t want to get into any sort of trouble.
He’d never been camping, he’d never had to start a fire. She seemed like she knew what she was doing so far, so he looked to Ngome hopefully.
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Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 4:41 pm
Kyuseisha no Hikari So Sorry for the very late reply Ngome noticed the uncertainty in Dering's eyes, but she also saw the determination there. She knew that they had to act fast before someone got hurt, and she refused to let her lack of experience hold them back.Ngome took a deep breath, trying to recall everything she had seen and heard about starting fires. She remembered something about friction and using sticks to create sparks. Without any other means, it was worth a shot."Okay," she said, her voice filled with determination. "Let's try rubbing two sticks together. It might take a while, but it's better than doing nothing."Ngome looked around for two sturdy sticks, finding a couple that seemed strong enough for their task. She handed one of the sticks to Dering, showing him how to hold it firmly in one hand. "We need to create friction between the two sticks," she explained. "Rub them together forcefully and quickly, until we see sparks."
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Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 8:32 am
Dering watched Ngome with obvious interest; he was very much a city boy, so the idea of starting a fire with sticks hadn’t even crossed his mind.
He accepted the offered stick and held it between his hands as he studiously watched her work. It took him a few seconds of failed attempts before he started to get it right, and a bit longer before he was able to do it with any meaningful results.
Dering was visibly focused on his stick, and hers, and he glanced quickly between the two in hopes that he could master it based on her instructions.
Every movement of his was deliberate and persistent; he was going to do his best. He didn’t want to let her down–or let anyone get hurt because of these spiders.
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