Web of Secrets (7) : Spiders have settled in all across town, and while this isn’t normally any great cause for concern, inky black spiders are oddly common. The spiders themselves are not very threatening–small, nonpoisonous, and cowardly. The interesting thing about them is their black webbing–and the strange designs they make. Webs appear overnight, often seeming to come out of nowhere. They are curiously designed, almost as if made to deliberately spell out something. People all over town have mentioned finding webs that spell out a single word, or part of a sentence. Maybe it’s just imagination, but as the days go on, the words seem to be clearer–and the messages are often uncomfortable or distressing. There’s no evidence that the spiders can spell or are trying to send messages, but really–is it that hard to believe? Once a spider has left a message, it disappears. They are masterful escape artists and cannot be caught. There’s no telling what the spiders want you to know, but maybe if you’re lucky one will leave you a message you understand.
Pyrrhus had walked away from his encounter with a webbed message feeling like he understood less than when he was squinting at it trying to decipher a strangely-written unfamiliar language. Which was something of a ********, all things considered.
It seemed too convenient, that he'd heard sirens, after reading they are coming on a spider's web. Or having it read to him by someone who actually understood the language. Whatever. The point was--it seemed too easy.
And then he rounded a corner, and came face to face with what he was now certain the message had actually been referring to.
It was a pair of creatures, wolflike and snakelike all at once--long bodies, weaving in and out of each other with the flexibility of a serpent, but with the legs and fangs of a pair of vicious wolves.
They Are Coming.
They noticed him when he noticed them, and came charging, twisting around each other like they were one-in-two.
"You ********," Pyrrhus said, with a manic sort of grin, "must be what it was warning me about. Nihility's Whisper."
His magic didn't come.
The monsters didn't ********," Pyrrhus swore, as they leapt towards him, in awful unison.
genovianprince
Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2024 5:17 pm
Alright, so Laeradr was still sometimes getting used to the creepy s**t on Halloween, that was fine. He liked the normal, human stuff for Halloween—usually. But once stuff started getting for real creepy, like, magically creepy? No. He really wanted to ******** off and never deal with it, thanks, except for the fact that he had to deal with it, because he was also magical, never mind the fact that one of the very few things that actually terrified him in this world was anything to do with ghosts and the like. Nope. It was his ******** job to deal with it. <******** ******** ******** <******** words in the spider webs like Charlotte herself was out here trying to save Wilbur from slaughter really freaked him out. He read one that said "Look", another said "Careful", and the last one he saw before he turned the corner said "They're here". How ever so cheerful, thank you very much! Yeah! That totally didn't raise any of his anxiety levels at all!!!
Of course, once he saw what was actually around the corner, his instincts kicked in. Thank God.
"More canine youma?!" he said loudly in disgust, raising his cane. "Come on! Can't a guy enjoy dogs anymore?"
He ran forward, bashing the both of them in the face with his cane—not a difficult feat, given they were twisting around each other like some ******** up orbo-borbo-whatits.
"Back off!"
Looking up briefly, he gave the alien a quick grin.
Pyrrhus was really, really glad to see someone else intervene, because it gave him a moment to scramble backwards, snapping his fingers like his magic was a stubborn piece of tinder and snapping would make it ignite. He'd thank the Squire alter, when the beasts (beast? Singular? Was it really two-as-one? Pyrrhus honestly wasn't sure) were dead and they could have a lovely little conversation.
"Come on, come on, come the ******** on," he growled, struggling to pull his magic from inside himself, wherever it was locked down. Decades of being a Senshi, and not a peep of problems, but when his homeworld went bright and chaos ruined everything--of course his magic had started to fail. He'd lost his Eternal wings and his Eternal power, and then even his Super's stripes, and--
Well, here he was, reduced to what he'd been when he was just barely seven, taking up the mantle Greyna had so desperately wanted.
--Finally, he felt sometihng <******** yes," he gasped. "Nihility's Whisper."
All color, all sound drained out from around them, and the wolf-things, which had been snapping at the Squire's cane, made a strange, unison hiss-whine of confusion. They wove around each other, weaving tighter and tighter into a smaller and smaller knot, as if they were trying to find something, or find each other, or--
Eventually, they twisted up tight enough that they seemed to snap, and come apart, crumbling to dust.
Pyrrhus smiled, satisfied with himself.
"Thanks for the backup," he told the Squire. "Pits, that was disgusting. And horrifying."
genovianprince
Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2024 6:26 pm
Learadr took an automatic step back when the senshi cast their magic, unsure what sort of problems it was about to cause (because of course some magic would cause problems for everyone in the area, and not just their enemies, which he knew full well, and he didn't want to be affected, thank you), but the radius must have been wider than he had anticipated, because even for him, the color and sounds of the world drained away. Eugh. How creepy.
Well, he shouldn't exactly judge, though—one of his best friends was the senshi of Hunger, and that was some ******** up magic, too. He watched the youma crumble to dust with mild interest, grateful when they vanished and the magic stopped.
"No problem man," he said easily, stepping forward again with an easy smile. "Gotta stick together, right? Especially when it comes to youma. These things are just dastardly. Nice to meet you by the way, you must be one of the new aliens taking refuge on Earth. Enjoying the food? I'm Laeradr, Squire of Neptune."
Honestly, the zone of silence and monochrome that his magic made was almost comforting to Pyrrhus, these days. Especially since it didn't always show up. So to have it...yeah, that was nice, even as it started to fade and the colors and sounds of the world began to bleed back in.
"Pyrrhus of Nihility," he said, extending a hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Laeradr of Neptune. Yes, I'm an alien from a desolate shitshow planet, hoping there's a way to fix it." If such a thing existed, but whatever, that wasn't something to dump on the guy who had just saved his a**.
genovianprince
Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2024 6:42 pm
Laeradr chuckled a little. "Hey, can't be that bad, if someone as pretty as you came from there," he said, unable to help himself from flirting a bit. Of course the alien was cute enough to make his heart melt! He just had to show a little bit of interest. If it was reciprocated, great, if it wasn't, fine, he would still be happy to make a friend. He loved learning about other planets from a direct source like this.
"For real, though? I've seen and heard of multiple alien senshi cleansing their planets and getting them restored, at least partially. We... still don't know if people will come back? But I've seen at least one world with dozens of plants and animals put back where they belong. There's hope, even for you, Mr Nihility."
Pyrrhus laughed. "You're a charmer, but I'm a widower and not interested in anyone else," he said. Maybe if Bernard's reincarnation ever came along. But otherwise....no. He'd tried once. He wasn't interested in trying again.
"Anyway, yeah, I've heard it's possible. Hoping I can figure it out for myself." He had to. There had to be ways.
But that was for another night.
"Thanks for the backup," he said. "I'll see you around, Laeradr." He gave a quick little wave, and darted off into the night.
