Summer Bugs (8 ) : Last year, one of Destiny City’s historic trees came to life after a lengthy hibernation, and it is livelier than ever. And, thankfully, mostly devoid of strange pods. Unlike the brown, soccer-ball sized pods from last year, these are all small and rarely larger than a tennis ball. The downside is that they have also been found in small clusters in surrounding trees as well. Sometimes, the hard-shelled pods tremble and twitch. Sometimes they split open and an angry cicada crawls out. The pods leak a strange, acidic sap that is strong enough to cause skin agitation–and in some cases there are even reports that it’s burned through wood or fabric. The cicadas are covered in it. Unlike the last generation, these cannot spit acid but it is still incredibly unpleasant to come into contact with them. They are food oriented and will come after everything they think can be eaten–food, clothes, hair. They are little more than a nuisance and never seem to stick around for more than a few days. Maybe it’s a sign that nature is healing–or maybe it’s a sign that there’s still something worse to come.
"No! Help!"
A small young man batted uselessly at the angry, buzzing insect that was harassing him, dancing about in the park near a tree covered with sticky, brown pods. He'd been curious about them, they'd be so strange, but the moment he'd dare get too close, something had flung itself at him with an angry whir or wings. He had no idea what the thing wanted, or why it kept coming after him even when he'd beat a hasty retreat from the tree. It kept diving at his hair and smacking into his horns, spreading a goo on him that smelled awful and burned where it touched. It had only taken one or two of those before Cernunnos had started crying out and dodging, trying to shoo the angry thing away without actually touching it.
This was awful... he didn't have anything to swat it with that wasn't his own hands, and he'd already felt that sting enough to know he didn't want to feel it again.
"Help!" He called out desperately, uncaring for once who heard him.
MiddyGlow
Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2024 9:49 am
Whimsical Blue
Vela was in the park by the tree when she heard someone yelling for help, she wasn't sure how to help them since her power was an area of attack and she didn't want to give the small cute figure stinging burns. She ran over and started to try to help scare the giant bug away. She figured if she could get some distance between them and the bug she would be able to use her dance of flames and make the bug flee from them really fast. She didn't waste her breath introducing herself. Since they had more important things to worry about at the moment. She remembered these pods and she wasn't shocked at all that they had bugs in them. There wasn't much in this city that surprised Vela at this point.
Holidays never went right in Destiny City, something always went crazy. She would have been really worried if there came a holiday and nothing bad happened. She would so think that another earth shattering thing was about to happen, and since she wasn't looking forward to that she was chill with the regularity scheduled weird stuff every year. "Hey shoo shoo." She said to the bug.
Relief flooded Cernunnos when someone heard him and came to his rescue. He could only spare part of his attention on thoughts of thanks though, when he was still trying to swat the thing away from his head. That angry buzzing it made... he felt like he was going to hear that in his nightmares after this.
The pale senshi ducked down as the stranger swatted away the bug, ducking under her arms to scoot around behind her.
"Can you squash it?" He gasped out as he cast about wildly for the bug, his hands held to shield his horns. He couldn't imagine trying to squash the thing himself... both because it had been so intent on getting at his head, making it impossible to focus on it, and because he did not like the idea of the way it would feel to squish it with his hands. It wasn't like he had any other way to... take care of it. His magic was mind magic, not physical!
MiddyGlow
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2024 7:31 am
Whimsical Blue
Vela considered if she could squash this thing, so many creatures in the city that appeared couldn't be defeated for whatever reason, She attempted to punch the thing to get it to back off and she yelped burning her hand on the acid goo that covered it's body. "Well that won't work." She paused thinking. "I'm going to need you to run a bit so I can get you safe and I can rain some embers down on this thing and get it to run away." She said slowly backing them away from the angry bug still coming at them. She didn't think kicking the thing was a good idea either since the good would likely eat through her shoe and hurt her foot. Her clothes would be repaired the next time she put them on but she didn't want to. "I'm not sure if squishing is going to happen with that acid good all over this thing."
Cernunnos looked up at the girl with misgivings as he ducked and held his hands over his horns, nibbling at his lower lip. Run away? And she'd take care of the bug? Well, he wasn't going to say no to help... even if he was unsure about whatever plan she had to take care of it.
"Whatever you say..." He gasped out, before ducking and finally charging away from the other senshi, crouching to keep his head down and covered. He moved as quickly as he could to clear space for her, hoping whatever that bug was, it would pick on her now instead of him.
"Go for it!" He yelled when he was a good distance apart, finally stopping to look back at her and watch for whatever she was planning.
MiddyGlow
Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2024 6:21 am
Whimsical Blue
Vela was glad they had listened and then she finally cast her Dance of flames, sending burning embers down on the bug making it feel like it was burning and finally that was enough to drive the bug away. She sighed out and then went back to the person she had helped. "Hey, are you alright?" She asked looking them over. She was worried they may have been burned by the acid on the bug it really hurt when it burn the skin. These bugs were a big problem. She wondered what their deal was. She remembered the pods from the last star festival and that the mysterious merchant had wanted them, seemed that whatever he wanted them for hadn't helped keep them from hatching in the city and causing problems. She shook her head trying to clear her head of the thoughts about the pods.
Being free from danger left Cernunnos also free to watch with interested as the other senshi called up fire. The embers looked like fireflies as they floated about, peppering the nasty bug until it finally gave up and flew away. Good riddance. He would have liked to smash the horrid thing, save that the idea of its hard exterior crunching under foot or hand gave him a terrible, icky feeling of rejection. UGH. Better to have let someone else take care of it, in the end.
"I'm fine." Cernunnos returned as he straightened up, running his hands through his soft, white hair to make sure there was no bug goo in it, or that the bug hadn't eaten any of it off. He was rather fond of his hair... it framed his horns nicely and, he liked to think, made them look larger and more elegant. He eyed the girl up and down as he did so, finally touching his fingers to his forehead in greeting.
"Thanks for your help. I'm Cernunnos. Are you an Earth Senshi?" She looked like one, of course, but that didn't always mean anything. See: Wezen. "I probably could have fought that thing off, if it hadn't insisted on trying to eat my horns."
MiddyGlow
Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2024 10:13 am
Whimsical Blue
Vela was glad that the person she had helped was alright, or so they said and she didn't really have a reason to call them a liar. She smiled and said "No problem Cernunnos, I'm glad I was able to help.." She paused "Horns? Earth senshi?" She blinked confused "Well my world is vela.. " She was rather baffled by what he was saying since she had nothing to go off of in this situation. "Ok start from the beginning because I have no idea what you are talking about."
