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.
content warning: this roleplay contains references to suicide/suicidal thoughts
Lionel wasn't a saving-people kind of person. He really, really wasn't. Never had been, even before getting drafted on what was apparently the Bad Guy side of the great cosmic war--or at least, it sounded like they were the bad guy side, and his experience seemed to sort of bear that out. Watching someone get twisted into a gleeful monster who enjoyed killing sure did make that seem obvious, especially when the first thing she'd done upon being corrupted was murder some poor, innocent alien.
Ever since that day, Lionel had felt....disconnected. Lost. Like he wanted to not be where he was, but he couldn't see a way out. And it had ground him down, month by month, year by year.
He wanted out. The weird alien fishman said it was possible, but Lionel didn't really understand how. He knew it involved a Princess, but he didn't really know how he was supposed to find one of those. And it felt idiotic to just...hope one would come across him and he'd be able to ask very nicely, pretty please will you fix me?
Please. As if.
The point was: Lionel was not a saving people person. And yet, he'd heard the scrabbling in the well, and he'd gone towards it, like there was any chance he'd be able to do anything to help. He'd leaned over, to look and see--
And his eyes had locked with strange gold ones, and the rest of the world had begun to slip away.
Maybe, if he just...tipped over into the darkness...whatever was down there...
Maybe he wouldn't get out. And maybe that would be okay. No one was going to miss Ronan Yamada, human incarnation of getting lost in the system. No one would care if he just....
Fell down a well. And never crawled out.
amorremanet
Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2024 9:46 pm
Destiny City around Halloween was Weird s**t Central—more so than usual for this town, anyway. Murikabushi had always known that, and it had only become more pronounced as a Fact Of Life since he’d Awakened as a senshi. Now that he was making his peace with the abundance of Order senshi white in his fuku—the recent eternal power-up at least gave him some more detail and a dip-dye effect on the furisode-esque sleeves that he quite liked—and the tramp stamp wings that went with it, though? Protecting people felt even more imperative.
It was just the right thing to do. It was what magical girls were supposed to do.
So, in addition to looking out for the usual business of a patrol—Chaos auras attached to people who were up to no good, fellow Order auras who needed somebody to stand up to them and put them in their place about the way they treated people, youma who were misbehaving and needed a timeout back in wherever youma went when you dusted them—Murikabushi took it upon himself to watch out for any other sundry weirdness. Those feral dogs that had chased people down all over the city a couple years back. Weird chills with no apparent cause (which made Muri want to pull out an old Walkman that had gotten turned into an EMF meter, which in turn made him want to slap himself for the sheer Dean Winchester of it all). Overly large bat-creatures in places where overly large bat-creatures did not belong.
Or, as the case was tonight, wells in the middle of a city park, from whence were coming some absolutely Samara Morgan (derogatory), wannabe Grudge-noises……and around which stood a Negaverse senshi. Not that Muri could see the telltale cracked chest and forehead from here, but he could see the black fuku and the long-a** ponytail. Plus, the aura felt Negaverse-y more than any other kind of Chaos, and the lack of flouncy, semi-transparent overlays meant the other guy couldn’t be Dark Mirror.…… He could, apparently, lean really close to the edge of the well, though. With no apparent regard for the flare-up of a White Moon eternal aura on his senses.
……Really too close, actually. With no signs of stopping himself, either.
“Hey! Wait!” Muri called out before he could think to stop himself. Throwing himself headlong into a run, he made it to the other senshi as fast as he could. Thankfully, they were pretty similar in height—Muri’s heels only made him a little taller, so this guy had to be about six-foot-five or something—so Muri could fling his arms around the other senshi’s waist without it being too awkward. “Come on! Whatever you’re hearing, snap out of it!”
Honestly, Lionel didn't particularly care about the presence of someone much stronger from the other side near him. They'd probably take one look and keep on walking, or maybe they'd shove him in and end his indecisiveness about this whole...well....thing.
They did neither of those things.
Arms around his waist. Someone pulling him back. Well, Lionel certainly couldn't drag someone else down with him, not again--
That thought snapped him out of the dark trail he'd turned down, and he staggered backwards, into the other person--another Senshi, about his height, which was kind of impressive--or maybe wearing heels, Lionel didn't know'
"I'm okay. You can let go," he said, though he wasn't sure how real or reassuring that sounded. "I just....there's something in that well and you sohuld definitely stay away."
amorremanet
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2024 4:34 pm
“Yeah, I kinda guessed,” Murikabushi said, reassured exactly not at all by what he was hearing but also ready to take this at the other senshi’s pace and improvise as necessary. That was probably the best way to handle the situation. “It’s the second of Halloween in this town specifically. Weird s**t is bound to happen. Mysterious things in a city well is, like, the least of what I might expect to see.”
If someone had told him that the reservoir cryptid had been spotted making swamp tea with a hag like Auntie Ethel, Muri would’ve acknowledged the possibility of a lie but still been inclined to believe them.
For the time being, though, he let go of the other senshi’s waist and took a step backward. “My name’s Murikabushi,” he said gently, earnestly. If this senshi was feeling evasive, then maybe the best way to proceed was just being nice, and saying things that were reasonably common. “And I don’t know what you might have heard or felt because of that guy? But Okiku-sama’s story taught me not to trust ******** up beings laying about in wells, so……it’s okay, y’know? If you’re not okay after whatever happened.”
Not that Muri actually suspected the thing in the well was the onryo of a woman who’d been savagely beaten, repeatedly drowned, then stabbed and thrown to the bottom of a well for the “crime” of refusing to become some incel samurai’s mistress, but……well. On the other hand, one never knew in this town.
Lionel nodded, slowly. Yeah, it was that time of year. Yeah, this was probably sometihng weird and magical. Yeah, he probably sohuldn't have gone anyhwere near it.
"Lionel," he said, though there was very little emotion when he said it. He turned to face his rescuer, took him in--tall, cute, very dramatic vibes--and smiled in a very bitter sort of way. "Just....let some stuff get away from me. Don't worry about it."
And, before he could stop himself--
"Surprised you bothered. Probably beneficial for everyone to get one more Negaverse monster off the streets."
amorremanet
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2024 7:04 pm
The other senshi kept saying that he was fine and that Murikabushi didn’t need to worry. But even before he tacked on the little bit at the end, the fairly sedate reaction to how the mystery-thing in the bottom of the well had apparently made him feel very okay with the idea of falling in headfirst. Muri wrinkled his nose, the more Lionel said, because……it didn’t sound right.
It didn’t sound okay.
But it did sound like something that Muri could try to help with.
“Granted, it’s not like we’ve met before, so of course you couldn’t know this about me, but……” Murikabushi shrugged, trying to act casual about a story that was fraught with emotion in a lot of ways, for a lot of reasons. “When I was still with the Dark Mirror, I ran into the middle of a fight between this one Order senshi diva who has since sprouted pretty princess wings and one ill-tempered half-youma, who is: A., both figuratively and literally flaming; and B., a General-Sovereign these days. Specifically, ran in to prevent her from killing him. He’s done terrible things before, he’ll probably do more terrible things in the future, and if he wound up in the same position with her again? Even wearing white, I’d still get between them to save him.”
He might have given them a lot of time to just have their feelings at each other, since both Cybele and Faustite had some very valid reasons for being upset. But if things started getting too out of hand, then yeah, Muri would have broken it up.
“Anyway, I also don’t think that Faustite is a monster, even knowing some of the things he’s done, and you’d need to have worked pretty hard to come close to his level of doing awful things to people.” Harder than seemed entirely likely, given Lionel was a basic. “So……all up? No, I don’t think you’re a monster. And Negaverse or not, I don’t think the world would be better off without you in it and alive. I think that sounds like some of how I felt when I was with Chaos, and……”
Murikabushi hesitated a moment, taking a deep breath and considering what to say. “……Are you sure you’re okay?”
Lionel blinked. Tilted his head to the side. Considered. Then, nodded. "You're that one, the ex-Dark Mirror who had a thing with Faustite," he said, a memory of gossip pinging in the back of his mind, from back when he'd cared about that sort of thing. "I know him. Worked under him for a while. Hell of an experience, that group."
To say the absolute ******** least.
"Anyway, if that's your judgement, no, I'm not even close." Who could match the brutality of a pissed off, on fire General-King, really? And even before that, Faustite had been hotheaded and messy.
"Anyway, I'm fine." A bitter little laugh slipped out before he could stop it. "Trapped by an organization that turns people inside out and makes monsters of them, but that's not exactly special." He shrugged his shoulders. "I've wanted out for years. Never had a way. Pretty resigned to just....staying as far under the radar as I can."
The threat of getting promoted lingered in the back of his mind. Bellite had been impressed with him, once, and that was still a very scary thought.
Anyway, why was he even opening his mouth about this? Sure, this guy had left the Dark Mirror, but there was no way it was the same process. That would be far, far too easy.
amorremanet
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2024 9:30 pm
Murikabushi chuckled, hearing Lionel’s initial reaction. “Yeah, I am that one,” he said, a playful smirk lighting up his face at the thought of having enough of a reputation to get talked about (and maybe a little at the thought that Faustite himself may have said anything for there to be gossip involved…… he probably had, considering that Jet had also known about Murikabushi from somewhere).
“And you’re dead on the money that his team’s a Hell of an experience. My first time meeting him, he wanted to see my magic and it triggered into binging on starseeds like a sleazy eighties business executive on cocaine. My first time meeting some of the rest of him, it’s in the basement of a burned out hotel in the aftermath of a huge battle with some alien monstrosity, in which a different Order senshi popped her princess wings. They’re all A ******** Lot, but then, hey, so am I and something something, glass houses.”
Which was perhaps not the most logical or sensible segue into the next part, but—well. Muri had asked and Lionel had answered.
“If you want out of the Negaverse, Miss Thing,” Muri told him, producing his senshi phone, “it’s literally just a phone call away. I’ve heard about how Negaverse purifications work and it’s really pretty straightforward. My cousin, this guy I like, and I had all had to fight Mirrorspace to get magical copies of our starseeds that Ida-hime-sama could purify. But for you guys, it might hurt? She will be using princess magic directly on your soul. Still, she really can just help you like that. It is that easy.”
And Ida would help Lionel out, Muri had no doubt in his mind about that. She even would have helped Faustite, even after the total ******** of princesses that happened right before he went full General-King.
“And if you need a place to stay after,” Murikabushi added with a small smile, “my place comes with housemates? But I like to think we’re a fun bunch, with our three senshi who purified, one Knight who purified, two senshi from outer space, and my QPP, who hasn’t awakened as magical but he’s irreplaceably special to me.”
Well. That confirmed....a lot of things, Lionel supposed. One,t hat he was right in judging this one as having dramatic vibes; two, that his assumptions and the vague gossip he'd picked up were correct; three, that he, Lionel, was going to have a weird ******** night.
"Are you serious?"
Just a phone call away. All these years, all this agonizing and hiding, all these secrets--and he just had to run into the right swishy, dramatic Senshi who could phone a ******** Princess and he'd be free.
"What's the catch." There was always a catch. "You're not offering to get me out of the Negaverse and take up space in your home for free. So what's the catch." There had to be one. Whatever it was, he'd have to weigh it against--well. Against getting away. Against starting over. Against never haivng to bow and scrape and yes-maa'm yes-sir some murderous lunatic who happened to have a giant ******** sword or ********, whatever the price was, Lionel was pretty sure he'd be willing to pay it.
amorremanet
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2024 10:14 pm
For a moment, Murikabushi blinked at that response, but it faded pretty quickly. Replacing it, his brow furrowed and his eyes went soft in concern. Compassion. Recognition of how hard it could be to accept that, sometimes, the answer really was that easy, especially when you’d already had Chaos inside your head—inside your heart—and actively working to tell you that you were garbage and you didn’t deserve any better than making yourself into a weapon.
“Well, the purification process probably won’t be comfortable, like I said,” Muri told Lionel earnestly. “Chaos is powerful and it’s literally inside your soul for Negaverse senshi. Some of your memories might get burned out by the process, too? I think it has something to do with the Negaverse Chaos clinging to your starseed as fiercely as it can. One of my friends who purified out—we knew each other in high school and he doesn’t remember that at all. Doesn’t remember basically anything of his civilian life before. But the extent of the memory loss and which parts go away are different for everybody who leaves the Negaverse.”
For now, Murikabushi left out the part where the memory loss problem seemed to be very different for former Mirror senshi. The worst that Muri had personally experienced was the sense that he knew he had once known civilian names all around for Sappho, Hybris, Lete, Bélénos, and Acubens-oneesan, but he couldn’t remember what they were.
“Other than that, though……?” Murikabushi shrugged. “My dog will probably decide that you are friend-shaped as soon as she meets you? Grieve—one of our alien senshi housemates—can be kind of a lot and sometimes, she just kinda says words, and those sure are some words she just said, y’know? I’m incredibly annoying to deal with when I’m really focused on finishing a new outfit, workshopping a new number, or complaining about how I hate doing drag on social media and would rather be in a sleazy queer bar, getting tips shoved down my bra?”
He sighed. “The catch is that you’re here. You’re miserable. You deserve something better than that. I can’t purify you myself, but I know people who can. And I want to help, if that’s what you want.”
Lionel was pretty sure that Murikabushi couldn't possibly be telling him everything. There was no way it was that simple. He'd want some form of repayment, or his Princess friend would. And there was the itsie bitsie matter of leaving his life behind--but what did he have, anyway? A good job, sure, but there were other mechanic shops in town and he could get work at one of them. An otherwise pretty hollow, empty life. He'd miss his guitar, but guitars were cheap. His apartment was s**t, so wherever he was going was probably a step up in that regard.
"Memory loss. Temporary pain. And having to start over. That's really it." If that was it, why didn't more people leave?
Maybe they were like Guinevere. Too far gone to save.
"Fine. Let's do it. Call your Princess friend."
He was going to get the hell out of here, no matter what.
