The Creature in the Well (9) : While Destiny City has a modern water system, it’s not uncommon to see decorative wells around the city. Often in parks or around gardens, they grant a peaceful, countryside flair to the otherwise busy metropolis. Most days, they blend into the background. Not today. Maybe you heard a powerful, fierce splash, like something smacking violently against the water, or maybe it was the unnerving croak that echoed from deep below, but something has clearly gotten trapped in the well. Sometimes, there’s the distinct sound of something clawing, scratching, climbing–desperate to get out. The noise its making is deep enough to vibrate through the ground. If you go to investigate, you’ll see nothing but a pair of golden, snakelike eyes staring back up at you. Whatever it is, its body is completely submerged under the water, but just looking into its eyes is enough to petrify someone. There’s something hypnotic about it, something that seems like it’s drawing you into the well. And why shouldn’t you climb in? What’s stopping you? Danger is forgotten; the creature in the well has made a target of you. Hopefully you have someone to pull you out of the trance–or, maybe if you’re strong enough, you can do it yourself. If you lose the battle with the creature, you will fall unconscious just as you hit the water in the well; you will feel the sensation of something coiling around you, crushing you, and then–blackness. You will wake up in a hospital with a day lost and no memory of what happened in the well, or how you were pulled out. You only have bumps and bruises, and when you close your eyes you’re haunted by the chilling golden eyes in the well. If you return to it, you’ll find nothing but a strange, croaking echo.
Lanting knew, rationally, that he probably shouldn't have followed the strange noise he was hearing. But the thing was, it sounded like someone in trouble--and Lanting couldn't imagine just...abandoning someone who might need help. Yeah, sure, okay, it was probably incredibly stupid of him to follow sounds of clawing and scratching directly to a creepy-looking well. That was the start of so, so many horror stories, and Lanting knew that his ancestors were definitely rolling over in their graves at the thought of their descendant making such a stupid choice.
If Corvina were here, Lanting was pretty sure his Senshi would have picked him up by the back of his cute little dress and hauled him off, and probably he would have been right to do that. But they'd split up tonight, so Lanting was entirely on his own, and that meant that he got to do the stupid thing with no giant boyfriend around to object to his choices.
(Not that Corvina was necessarily his boyfriend. They hadn't put a name on what they had, and Lanting wasn't even sure how to begin approaching that conversation with a thousand year old alien. But it was a sort of shorthand, and it felt right, so whatever, he could think it in his own head.)
As he got closer to the edge of the well, he gripped his cane close to his chest, leaning over the edge.
"Hello? Do you need help?"
His voice echoed.
And the only response was a subtle movement, and then a pair of bright, golden eyes staring up at him.
Bright, golden eyes that held his own, and left him drawn to the darkness. Whatever was down there....it needed help, didn't it? And there was only one way to help it....
Lanting's cane slipped from his fingers, clattering loudly against the outer edge of the well, and before he even really knew he'd moved, he had one hand on the edge and was halfway through swinging himself over it and into the dark.
OP-Yuna
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2024 2:23 pm
"Waiiiiiiit~" came a shout from nearby, "Don't do it!"
The super senshi seemed to appear out of no where to grab Corvina before they could make their descent down in to the inevitable awaiting doom.
Did Steins know that doom wait at the bottom of that well? Well, no, she didn't. Honestly there was just as likely to be nothing at all in there, but omg what if this person got in there and then couldn't get out and then someone else came by and heard them calling for help but were too spooked to help? O. M/ G. what if that was what had already happened and this person wasn't too spooked to help the other person?
Well, better that there were two of them there to help then!
The hands grabbing him and the voice calling out startled Lanting out of his fixation on the thing in the well. He did yelp as he was pulled away, but more form surprise than anything else--and though it took him a moment to shake his head and reorient himself, once he did, he looked from the well to the Senshi and back, and then dusted off his dress as if that was going to make this whole situation less ridiculous.
"Thanks," he said, "I don't...I thought there was someone down there that needed help, but, um, I think whatever's in there might be bad news." Because good news didn't hypnotize you into throwing yourself into a well. "If you hadn't come along, I don't know what would have happened. I'm Lanting, hi."
OP-Yuna
Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2024 10:33 am
"It's the least I can do - things around here can be weird, but this time of year, they just seem to get extra weird. We could all use a little extra looking out for one another."
Steins was only out alone because, well, after Dom's little medical snaffu she had maybe been a little extra clingy, and knew thy guy needed a little extra him time. Especially before the busy season. It was kind of sad how the holidays also seemed to come with such an uptick in business, given the business he was in. She wasn't all that knowledgeable on the socio-scientific explanations behind it, and kind of just accepted the sad truth of it all. Not that she let it dampen her 'fall-iday' or holiday spirit.
"Nice to meet you - I'm Stein!" The senshi returned the introduction with her own, then stepped closer to look down the well, "Kind of weird that the city still has all these old wells. I wonder if there is a reason for it. Seems kind of dangerous to not at least have a grate over it if it's kept around just for ornamentation or historical preservation...."
Steins looked around to see if maybe there had been a covering, but it had been removed...which would have been even more suspicious.
"Yeah, I've...noticed that, yeah," Lanting acknowledged. Before he'd become a Knight, he'd mostly brushed it off as strange but sort of just There. But now that he knew magic was a real thing and occurrences like this were probably that, it felt all the more....he didn't know. Imperative? To keep an eye on these things.
Also, maybe he would bother Corvina about sticking together more. For safety. So stupid things like this didn't happen as much.
"Nice to meet you, Stein," he said, and he turned to look thoughtfully at the well. "I always thought they were just decorative, or maybe there was something dangerous about removing them? Like trying to take them down woulds cause back flooding or something? Weird that it's not capped, though, you're right...."
He tilted his head to the side.
"Do you think--whatever's in there---did someone put it there on purpose?"
OP-Yuna
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2024 9:55 am
"Well," Steins began, looking over the edge and seeing nothing but darkness, "I think it's easy to assume nefarious magic chaos things, but there is always the possibility of regular ol' crime. Or something more mundane"
Just how much regular crime, assaults, muggings, murder, abduction, trafficking, got thrown under the rug as part of the magical war between Order and Chaos? For those not in the know, it was all just part of the rampant 'terrorism' and gang activity that was rampant in Destiny City. Even scarier, was how the common people were content with that. It was normal.
Before she really knew what this whole Senshi thing was about, she had used her magic on so many would-be assaulters. And the people had been so brazen about it too! Because they knew they had a good chance of getting away with it, under the guise of 'it's just part of the s**t that happens in DC.' And sure, the police didn't really stand a chance against the real magic and monster stuff, but that didn't excuse the dismissal of other things, or a lack of presence on the streets. Not that she could begrudge the police force for fearing for their own lives when literal monsters roamed the streets that they had no defence against.
It was another one of those conundrums Steins tried not to think about because her thoughts would just go in a circle of frustration, but understanding, but disappointment, but empathy.... uuuuugh!
"I try not to dwell too much on these things," she then gave a bit of a chuckle, "maybe that's why I've stayed out of so much trouble!"
"Yeah, that makes sense," Lanting sighed. Steins was probably right. It was easy to assume, but that didn't actually mean anything. Lanting sighed, and resisted the urge to look back at the well, because what if there was something about him that made it more attractive to his ridiculous little loot goblin brain?
Ugh, this stupid city and its stupid problems. Maybe he would just have to purposely wander near these wells in the future, make sure that other people weren't falling for it, in case it was a bigger problem than just this one.
"Anyway, thanks again for saving me--I'll be more careful about weird well-based things in the future." He did take one last brief glance back at the well, but nothing stirred out of it or anything.
Probably for the best to get out of there, though, just in case something did.
OP-Yuna
fin? heart
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2024 5:52 pm
"No problem! Better a prevention-mission than a rescue and recovery mission!"
Even if she didn't have a massive sense of self-preservation, the idea that there were others that would worry about her and that cared for her was enough to have her keep her nose out of most things - if she wasn't keeping safe for her own sake, then she would for theirs. And even if she was being risky, she hoped someone, even if they were a stranger, would come by and save her, too.
