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 Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 7:25 pm
Quote: The Real Cinnamon Challenge (11) : In a city this size, a little smog is inevitable–no matter how hard the local scientists are working to produce clean air for the many citizens. A thick, brown fog has recently been known to roll in. It would be easy to brush this off as standard pollution–except for the overwhelming smell of cinnamon. The odor is potent enough to be immediately recognizable, and worse than that, it hits you like a wave of cinnamon, too. If you inhale, you will almost immediately find that your mouth feels dry, and your lungs are quick to follow. The smoke burns your eyes and breathing becomes difficult. Just being out in the cinnamon smog can cause coughing, vomiting, or other irritation. If you thought the cinnamon brooms were bad, wait until you catch a whiff of this. It’s probably best to just stay inside and spare yourself the worst of it.
There were two cups of hot chocolate in his hands, and a small bag of cider donuts that he had picked up in town before coming. They would be cold by now, but still! They were delicious and he truly wanted to make a good impression.
Sitting on a bench, the General closed his eyes and sighed, trying to relax. Trying to unwind as best he could. He couldn’t and didn’t want to start this meeting tense and upset, and as he went through a few mental breathing exercises, he was beginning to feel better…at least until he drew in a deep breath and suddenly couldn’t breathe.
His eyes snapped open and there seemed to be a brown haze around him, and for a moment, Gismondine was a newly corrupted Lieutenant again, and that horrible, cinnamon Senshi had his hands around his throat.
The drinks were both flung away and Gismondine pulled himself up and tried to run, but ended up falling to his knees, struggling to breathe.
At least the fog…the cinnamon…the whatever it was didn’t seem to be on the ground, and he gasped for breath, eyes watering, chest burning.
…and of course it was then that he felt the Corrupt Senshi. Of course he had to be seen like this.
So much for a good impression.
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Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 12:32 pm
Xenia honestly thought that she was being the most brave and gay it was possible to be, agreeing to go to this little meetup with this supposed potential traitor who was her girlfriend's friend's boyfriend. Some mediocre dude that she was going to have to tolerate for however long this went on.
The things she did for love. And friendship. And whatever.
She was approaching the meeting spot when she saw the strange brown fog and stopped in her tracks. Even far away from it, the scent of cinnamon was almost unbearable, and she was pretty sure that the poor dude she was meeting was going to be in the middle of...all ********' big yikes.
She approached slowly, hoping the fog would get less bad or go away or whatever, but it still seemed to be lingering in the air--ugh.
And there, on the ground, was the General she was supposed to meet, probably. Ouch,t hat was embarrassing, but at least he had a good excuse.
"Hey, are you Gismondine? We sohuld get out of here in case more of....whatever this is shows up."
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Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2024 12:07 pm
Gismondine remained on the ground for a good few moments before he finally had the presence of mind to teleport out of the cinnamon. He was a General. He could teleport. He could get himself out of situations. He wasn’t helpless.
He wasn’t.
Just because he felt it, especially with the scent of cinnamon...he wasn’t.
It took another few moments before he could get to his feet and look at the corrupted Senshi before him. “...You…you’re Xenia?”
Good. His voice worked. It sounded rough and gravely, but it worked. “...I’m…yeah. I’m Gismondine. We should…we…it’s not a good idea to get close to that…”
He gestured behind himself and turned, walking swiftly away from the brown fog. From the trap. From…
Whatever the hell it was. When they were a safe distance, he sat himself on a bench and rubbed at his stinging, still misting eyes. “...How can I help you…?”
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Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2024 2:48 pm
Oh. Yeah. Teleportation. Probably Xenia should have said something to remind him that he could do that, but it had become so second nature to her that it seemed strange to forget. But whatever, when your brain was being scrambled by so much cinnamon it sohuld probably count as an illegal chemical weapon, maybe forgetting obvious s**t was just....the norm.
She did step away from him a little in case the smell lingered, and hoped he was too distracted to notice, because that was probably rude or whatever.
"Yeah, I am," she said, and that was it other than a nod to agree to get away from the cinnamon until they'd given themselves some space. She plopped on the bench next to him, crossing one leg over the other, and rested her elbow on her knee and then her cheek against her fist.
"Well, y'know, my girlfriend is friends with your boyfriend," she said, a little bluntly, "and I guess you've had some stuff going on? Do you wanna talk about it? Get an outside perspective?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2025 5:48 pm
“Dresda…talks about me?” It was the safest place that Gismondine’s brain latched onto and he swallowed, feeling a little bit of warmth in his chest at the thought. “...I hadn’t really known that but…It’s nothing. New. I guess.”
He shrugged and rubbed at his chest, trying to ease the pounding, stuttering rhythm his heart was doing, and after a moment, he shuddered. “Cinnamon. That. It’s a big…there’s a Senshi who’s power is just cinnamon. He tried to kill me several times, and was the whole reason I was recruited. It…the smell puts me in a rough kind of place…I…suppose…I’m sorry that…you had to see me like that.”
He could save face. Gismondine didn’t have to look like a complete idiot…and everything he was saying was the truth. Just…not all of it. This…this Xenia was a stranger, after all…and even though her…girlfriend was friends with Dresda…
“You…were just worried about me?”
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Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2025 1:24 pm
"I guess, yeah, isn't that what boyfriends and girlfriends do? Like, for real, I am making an active effort right now to not talk about how amazing Wavellite is." And frankly, Xenia thought she deserved an award for it. Maybe she'd buy herself a treat on her way home since no one else was gonna congratulate her.
She wasn't really someone who considered herself traumatized or anything, so Xenia couldn't exactly relate, but maybe it made sense to other people. "Yeah, I can see why that'd feel that way. Sounds like he sucks. A lot of Order senshi are crazy. Sorry you had to deal with that." So mature! So not dismissive! Good job, she told herself. And she could totally pretend that she was just worried about him! That would definitely get him to open up. She could be cute and sympathetic, totally.
"But yeah, just worried. We're all supposed to be a big team, the Negaverse, right? So why shouldn't I worry about one of my teammates?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2025 7:44 pm
Gismondine hesitated. “I mean…that’s what I keep being told but. Everyone.” He broke off and shook his head, looking at Xenia again. “You are absolutely free to talk about how amazing she is. I don’t mind listening to that at all.”
It would be easier than the real issue that she seemed to be bringing up. He didn’t…know her. Didn’t know what he could really say to her…but then again…
Maybe it helped that he didn’t know her. Maybe he would be able to just…unload his thoughts to this stranger…self proclaimed ‘teammate’ or not…
“Do you really believe that? That we’re just one big team? You don’t…” s**t. He hadn’t wanted to keep talking but.
“You don’t feel like we’re in the wrong? Everyone who has told me that we’re a big team, we’re a family. They’ve all left...and I can’t…I mean. I’ve killed someone…what if I’m the monster here? How do you stop yourself from feeling that way?”
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Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2025 1:14 am
"Aww, for sure I will, but maybe another time?" Xenia shrugged. That wasn't the point right now, was it? She had other things to focus on. And she was being so good about focusing on That Thing.
"Oh, yeah, absolutely I do," she said. "The Negaverse is my family. I mean, I came in when I was like, fifteen, and I left the other side on purpose. It sucks. It's stupid. It's full of jerks, nobody knows what they're doing, and like....it just...it was awful. But I'm way happier now."
She kicked her feet a little and sighed. She was totally not the one for moral questions.
"I mean, we're protecting our planet, right? And if we're protecting everyone, sometimes we have to make sacrifices. Plus, if you killed an enemy...this is war. That's normal. You have to do that."
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Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2025 7:02 pm
Gismondine shook his head and found that he couldn’t keep looking at Xenia. He began pacing in a small circle, back and forth. “It wasn’t normal. She was a kid. And I just. I was cornered by literal kids and I took one of their souls and just…I can’t do this. I’m not that…I can’t.”
He wasn’t making sense, and honestly, the air was starting to feel a little thin. He was starting to feel a little dizzy, or…oh.
Maybe he was just having a panic attack. It was horrible how normal of a thing this was becoming…
Didn’t make it easier to get rid of it but…at least he wasn’t dying, right?
“I can’t do this anymore. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
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Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2025 1:50 am
Oh no. Oh, no no no. This was very bad, this was so so very very bad. Xenia did not like what she was hearing, and she was not the person to be talking him around about this, but this meant she would definitely have to tell Wavellite about all of it.
"That sounds really messy," she said, because that was probably what normal people said, even if she was thinking why do you even care? What does it matter?
She'd been a kid, once. And she'd made the right choice, because she wasn't stupid.
"But what do you mean, can't do this?"
That was such a terrifying statement, it made Xenia's chest hurt. Did she literally have a traitor right in front of her? Was that what was happening?
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