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 Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2024 11:37 pm
The business up at Dunwich’s Wonder had, thankfully, helped things down on Earth to calm down. No more trouble with powering up, no more nonsense about her driftwood heart deciding not to come when she summoned it or melting away if she held on to it too tightly. Good things all around, Dunwich felt, but getting back into the swing of everything about being a magical knight. After so long away from the life and the war, trying to lay low and protect herself and more importantly Jacob—her husband, her d’If—from any potential Negaverse retribution over his purification, any windfall was more than welcome.
She didn’t know what to think about the other one, though. The one from the vision she had had during the resonance ritual. Keziah Whateley, the previous Knight of Dunwich, with her oversized, glassy blue eyes that didn’t seem to blink often enough and reminded Eva-Dunwich of certain species of deep sea fish. In the vision, she’d been talking to another Knight—one decked out in Saturnian colors but distinctly not d’If—and even though the Saturn Knight had had distinctly pointy ears, he’d seemed more human than Keziah had.… Or, Eva-Dunwich didn’t know, more “sapient mortal person regardless of specific species-adjacent heritage”?
Distinctly unlike Keziah. Something about her behavior had felt smudged around the edges.
Patrolling mostly kept Dunwich’s mind off of the question of what the something smudged around her predecessor’s edges might have been……but only mostly. Tonight, she’d gotten fairly lucky by most people’s standards—a quiet night, no draining victims along her route and no ne’er-do-wells from either the Negaverse or the Dark Mirror Court. Of course, that only meant that someone else was probably picking up the slack by having their night. There was almost a sense of relief when she felt the youma’s aura, because it meant not needing to over-think about whether or not anybody else needed backup that she didn’t know she needed to provide.
Rounding into the alley where the aura was coming from, Dunwich found herself staring at a creature that looked like it belonged out in the reservoir with the alleged cryptid. Human—or at least humanoid—somewhere between the Slenderman and sexy fish-man from The Shape of Water, with an unhinged jaw and a gaping mouth filled with rows upon rows of sharp, jagged teeth. Eugh, what in the—Dunwich gasped softly, and the youma shrieked, a terrible, wretched sound like rusty nails shattering glass, accompanied by overly tense, high-pitched strings.
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Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2024 11:54 pm
Madriu really felt like he was getting used to this planet. Yes, some things felt the same, but....there was a certain vitality in knowing that if he went out to patrol, he would almost certainly run into someone else. Chaos, Order, it didn't matter--there would at least be someone for him to talk to, and that was a massive improvement over centuries of silence.
So. A Page and a youma. Most Pages could probably handle most youma, so whoever it was probably didn't need backup, but they might want some--so Madriu altered his path, and he was sure he was on the right track when he heard a horrible, monstrous shriek.
He picked up the pace, hopping across a rooftop or two before he saw the scene in the alley below: strange, aquatic beastie. Page ready to fight. (Page who seemed familiar, but that was something Madriu could deal with in a few minutes when the youma was dust.)
He leapt down from the rooftop, landing next to her, ears pricked and tail swishing eagerly.
"Want some help with that?" He asked, and there was no mistaking that he very, very much wanted the answer to be yes.
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Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 12:31 am
Another incoming White Moon aura was a cause for some relief. Not quite a sigh of it, but under the circumstances, Dunwich still felt too tense to sigh about anything. Still, it was better not to take on some spindly-limbed but muscular-looking weird youma that looked like the sort of thing that other youma might have had nightmares about. The sort of thing that other youma told ridiculous cautionary tales about so new youma wouldn’t mess around with it.
Glancing toward whoever had jumped down to join her, Dunwich started to say “thank you” but shut up for a quick double-take. The senshi beside her had wolf ears. And a tail. And okay, the Velencyans existed and were aliens who did things within Destiny City, but……alien senshi? Just kind of showing up on Earth like this? Maybe Dunwich and d’If had missed more going on in town than they’d realized.
But the youma shrieked again, shambling toward Dunwich and the mysterious alien senshi. Right. Exactly. Thinking about whatever she’d missed while laying low could wait until they finished the work. “Whatever you’ve got to give, thanks,” Dunwich replied.
With her driftwood heart ready, she chucked it at the youma, smacking it square between its bulging, glassy-looking eyes.
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Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 12:47 am
The Page seemed startled by him--maybe she was new, or maybe she wasn't aware of nonhuman Senshi, one or the other. Either seemed possible, all things considered, and neither was relevant.
"I've got plenty," he said, and he grinned, in the way of someone very much spoiling for a fight. She threw her weapon at the thing, and Madriu took that as an opening, leaping forward and swinging his fist at the underside of its chin, which was usually a pretty soft spot for anything scaley and reptilian or am,phibious. Those eyes looked huge, and like nasty vulnerable spots--so if he had to, he'd bet they'd make a fine way to finish this thing off if it gave him and the Page trouble.
But for now, he was going to enjoy the chance to inflict a little morally neutral violence on a creature that would gladly inflict worse on innocent people, all things considered.
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Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 2:00 am
Fortunately for Madriu, the youma seemed to be more bark than bite. Startled already by getting conked in the head with the driftwood heart, the youma rerked back—more than adequately exposing the underside of its chin. That place was already vulnerable for it, but the backward tilt of its head only made it more so. When Madriu’s fist connected, the youma flew back.
It didn’t end up hitting the ground. Instead, it burst into a cloud of extremely anticlimactic dust, the way that youma generally did.
Finally, Dunwich managed to let herself sigh in relief. “Thanks for coming in with the assist there,” she said, walking forward to collect her driftwood heart. As she turned back to the probably?? alien?? senshi, she smiled and held out her hand. “Dunwich of Neptune. I haven’t met a senshi quite like you before? But really, I appreciate the help tonight, Sailor……?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 2:05 am
The youma went flying and exploded into dust, and Madriu felt thoroughly satisfied by that. Every time he watched one of those things crumble, it felt a little bit like a step towards fixing the pollution on his world, even if that wasn't necessarily directly true.
At the least, it told him Chaos could be beaten.
Also, it was a joy, and he'd been missing the rush of adrenaline that came from real fights, not scrabbling for survival. So he turned to the Knight with a smile--one that didn't drop when he recognized her name. Dunwich. The strange fish-lady, the one that had asked them to bring her a music box in return for borrowing a map they needed.
He remembered her. Apparently, this new version did not remember him.
Still, he took her hand and shook it.
"Madriu of Struggle," he said. "Pleasure to back you up, Dunwich. Are you good on your own, or do you want to patrol together for a bit?" He'd make it either way, but he wanted to leave the option open for her.
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Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 2:34 am
Madriu of Struggle—sounded like the same kind of senshi name and sphere that all the human senshi Dunwich had ever met had. Considering they were reincarnated from alien worlds, having alien senshi work pretty much exactly the same made sense. And really, after the initial shock of noticing the ears and tail without knowing what to make of them, they weren’t actually that startling. Pretty easy to adjust to, especially when he seemed so nice.
“Sure, I’d love to patrol together,” she said. “I usually don’t get the chance with anybody but my husband. It’ll be nice to make some new friends.”
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