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 Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 10:22 am
Quote: Pinecone Projectile (10) : A strange anomaly has befallen Destiny City. Ordinarily, a falling pine cone would hardly be worth noticing; there are plenty of them littering the city on a daily basis. However, recently some of these pine cones are causing a bit of noise. Scientists are blaming some bacteria in the trees natural sap as being responsible, but some pine cones are falling to the ground and making loud crackling, popping sounds–or worse, exploding upon contact. As if the sound of small explosives aren’t enough, some reports even claim to have witnessed sparks and small fires. You’d better be careful when walking around any areas with trees–and definitely don’t start throwing these just to see what happens!
There were, Nymphe thought irritably as she wiped sticky, sappy hands against her skirt, better ways she could have spent her day. The news had been so over the top ridiculous about exploding pine cones that she’d just had to go out and investigate. Thus far, she’d found nothing but regular old pine cones that left traces of sap all over her fingers. She’d already made the mistake of forgetting about the stickiness and trying to brush a strand of hair from her eyes. It was now stuck to her forehead in a tangled and matted hank.
The cones she’d found hadn’t even been particularly pretty or she could have brought them home for decorations or to toss into the fire. So this trip had been a waste.
Or so she’d thought until she heard a popping sound similar to a small firework. Creeping through the trees, she halted when she saw a tree filled with pine cones and managed to see one falling, sparking and crackling as it went. Eyes wide, she watched silently as it hit the ground and popped, sounding a bit like gunfire. Fortunately, the sparks all seemed to die out and Nymphe felt like she could breathe again.
Being stuck in a forest fire was not her idea of a Good Time.
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 7:21 pm
Being stuck in a forest was definitely Staurolite’s idea of a good time, though that was probably because he enjoyed climbing trees more and more these days, and he had an easy out–he could always teleport to freedom, whereas most others could not. Tonight he’d come across another popping pinecone tree, much to his delight, and he’d been dancing around the idea of maybe packing some to take with him to a rooftop where he could playfully drop them on unknowing civilians below when he sensed the Order aura coming along.
Glancing toward them, he smirked and carefully leaned against what was hopefully a safe tree that put him within easy reach of the pinecones.
“Evening!” He greeted them with a friendly enough wave. “This is pretty far off the beaten path. Are you looking for these things, too?”
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Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2024 1:54 pm
As a strange, smiling man popped out of the trees suddenly, Nymphe mentally cursed herself for not paying better attention to her surroundings. Specifically her gut which was screaming that this guy was very bad news. Watching him carefully, she took note of the uniform like clothing and managed to put two and two together.
This was one of those Negaverse people. So her gut wasn’t just alarmed by him as a person, but she was picking up on the very bad vibes that seemed to just roll off of his skin. Taking note of the feeling so she would never forget, Nymphe decided that until she had a better idea of what he was capable of, bare civility was the way to go. Forcing a small, neutral smile, she nodded primly.
“Any good naturalist would be,” she said in an even voice. “Exploding pine cones are not exactly a… normal occurrence. Is there a plant equivalent to a cryptid? This would be that.”
There! Polite enough, but not oversharing. She would be proud of herself once she was home safe.As it was, every instinct wanted her to get away by whatever means were required. Nice people didn’t smirk like that!
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Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2024 5:31 pm
”No they’re not,” he said, watching the other curiously as he tried to figure out what exactly he was in the mood for. Conversation? A little fun? Maybe work toward his energy quota? He was barely halfway, the holiday festivities proving to be fun, albeit probably unfortunate (at least for his responsibilities) for his work.
“So you’re doing research, then?” he went on, pushing off of the tree this time and leaning down to pick up a pinecone. He wasn’t sure if it was one of the exploding ones, but…he’d find out soon enough.
So would she.
“Maybe I can help with that.” She seemed…nervous? And in the interest of relieving that tension, the Captain came to the decision that a bit of fun was maybe in order. “Let’s test this one out!” He threw the pinecone in her direction then, smirk turning into a full on grin.
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Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2024 12:08 pm
Instinctively ducking behind a tree as the officer threw a pine cone at her, Nymphe held her breath as the thing exploded, spraying sparks into the snowy underbrush. The grin on his face was enough to make her want to punch it. Instead, she slapped and stamped to kill the sparks around her tree.
“Are you crazy?” she hissed. “Is that your problem?”
Kneeling down to scoop up a handful of snow, she slapped it against the sparks trying to bite into the tree trunk. “How could you even think that was okay? You could start a fire and hurt the animals that live here!”
Cursing in Icelandic, she decided that she had the answer to the question of who would ever want to join the Negaverse. Clearly the answer was ******** psychopaths like this guy! And he was clearly more than happy to bring harm to innocent things if it meant scarring or hurting her. Did she have the right to fight back in kind? Beyond not wanting to be labeled as a hypocrite, she decided that no. She wouldn’t try to explode him. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t use other things to defend herself!
There had been a rock in her handful of snow and she took it now and threw it as hard as she could, not at the officer’s face, but at the branches above him. They were laden with snow and a cold, heavy shower was just what he needed. Besides, the resulting snow fall would give her a moment to figure something else out!
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Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2024 10:53 pm
If her words had offended him, Staurolite’s expression didn’t show it. Instead he looked more amused at her question, and shook his head. “Just having some fun,” he said as he leaned down to pick up another pinecone. “There’s so much snow, I think it’d take more than a few sparks to start a fire out here.” The idea of starting a fire did put him off from throwing this pinecone, though, and he looked thoughtfully at it, and then the senshi, before setting it gently down.
Just in case.
Unfortunately, he took his eyes off the senshi to stoop down, so he didn’t see that she threw a rock. There was a rustle overhead as he straightened out, though, and when he looked up his eyes went wide at the sight of the falling snow. He was covered in it even as he teleported some feet away, and he narrowed his eyes at the senshi.
“Guessing that was you?” he asked, the annoyance clear on his face and in his tone as he dusted the snow off. He was contemplating his decision earlier to set the pinecone down, because now they were all well out of reach. He still had his weapon, of course, but the pinecones were more fun to play with.
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Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 9:35 am
”Just having fun, he says,” Nymphe muttered furiously under her breath. As if the snow magically meant that a fire couldn’t happen! Idiot! Still, she was slightly mollified when he put the next pine cone down and stepped back. It was a pity he couldn’t have done so before she had launched her little salvo, but such was life. Even so, she had to admit that she was enjoying his annoyance.
“What?” she demanded, making her eyes wide and innocent as she mimicked his tone, though she didn’t dare mimic his smirk. That would have been going Too Far. “I’m just having some fun.”
Oh, but she hadn’t expected him to be able to blip around in the blink of an eye. That was going to be troublesome if he got angry. Watching his face, she decided that no, he already seemed angry. Probably because he didn’t like getting doses of his own medicine. Though at least her little trick with the snow didn’t risk murdering hundreds of innocent animals.
Unlike those pinecones, which she was going to have to figure out a solution for. On top of figuring out how to escape from an angry Negaverse person alive. s**t, she was going to have to be the hypocrite after all, wasn’t she…
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 3:28 am
Her tone grated at his mood, but he fought down his annoyance when she threw his words right back at him. That was fair enough, after all, and what was he if not fair?
Sighing, he dusted off the rest of the snow and considered the senshi for a moment. It wasn’t likely that a proper conversation about picking sides would be very productive given their discourse so far (and fine, that was maybe his fault…), so he weighed his other options for a second before deciding that he wasn’t really in the mood for any of it. Not the lying, nor the fighting, nor the draining.
Even just the idea of attempting any of it was exhausting, and with his mood ruined he kind of just wanted to go home.
“Alright, well. Normally there’s a lot more sugar coating,” he said, starting to fiddle with his crossbow as if he had to do anything to actually maintain it. It was a wordless threat, not to mention an empty one, but it helped for appearances. All amusement was gone from his face, replaced by a slightly sour expression, like a child whose toy had just been taken from him.
“But I’m not really in the mood to coax, so. Question for you. Have you ever considered a life with the Negaverse?”
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Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 1:47 pm
Making sure to keep the tree she was sheltering behind between them, Nymphe watched, eyes widening as the officer suddenly held a crossbow and looked very put out indeed. It looked like she had gone Too Far after all. But since he was just standing there, she felt it was safe enough to take a tiny step from her shelter and watch him carefully.
At least until he started talking. Then, she just felt an icy prickle between her shoulders.
“Why would I have considered that?” she asked, voice carefully neutral. “I like the life I have now.”
She thought about telling him, quite truthfully, that his aura was making her stomach flop in all the bad ways and she suspected that death might be a better option, but… well. Crossbow. It probably wouldn’t be the smartest idea to mouth off quite that much. He handled the weapon like someone used to using it. And he could teleport around. That was a concerning combination, but perhaps not insurmountable. Maybe? She would certainly hope not.
Moving back behind the tree, she glanced up and considered. Firs kept their greenery and the tree was thick with snow and pine cones which had even odds of exploding if jostled. She knew she was stronger and faster when in senshi form… The trees might be her best means of escape. She’d end up sticky as hell, but sticky was better than dead. Or being forced into the Negaverse. But she couldn’t let him know that. Not yet.
Fiddling with her hair, she pulled it back and knotted it, trusting its weight to keep it from pulling loose. It was a pity that she wasn’t more camouflage friendly, but oh well.
“No,” she said in a musing voice, “I’d never thought of it before. But I have now and I think I must pass, thank you though.”
When she moved, it was fast and with purpose, scurrying up into the tree and shaking every branch as hard as possible to dislodge as much as possible. She kicked at pine cones where she could, hoping that enough would pop to keep the officer distracted. All she wanted was to use the trees to hide and escape as quickly as she could.
She had great hopes that the flurry of snow and (hopefully) exploding vegetation would shield her.
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 7:50 pm
The Captain clicked his tongue, but rather than being even more irritated at the fact that tonight was likely going to be a loss for his quota, he looked more…relieved. As if he’d been hoping she’d give him an answer that would give him, in turn, an easy way out of having to do anything more for the night.
“Shame,” he said, his smile now returned. “And here I thought I’d be able to have more to show for my efforts tonight. Ah, well.”
He was about to say more when she suddenly started moving, and he lost her in the tree she decided to scamper up. It took him a second to figure out what she was trying to do, but when she started randomly shaking the tree so the snow was just everywhere, not to mention kicking pinecones at him, he audibly cursed and jumped behind the tree just nearby.
“What was that about starting a fire and hurting the animals?!” he called out from behind the tree, wincing whenever a pinecone exploded, and grumbling under his breath about why he continued to try and extend a bit of trust to these damn Order folks.
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Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 1:08 pm
Squeaking a little as some of the pinecones popped and fizzled far too close to her for comfort as she climbed, Nymphe decided that she’d just stick with using the heavy, wet snow to aid in her escape. She could hear the officer shouting about starting a fire and she paused. A quick peek showed that, thankfully, nothing had caught fire. Yet. She wouldn’t risk setting off any more.
At least, she wouldn’t actively aim them at his head.
“You were acting threatening,” she called, voice indignant. “I can’t help anyone human or animal if I let you hurt me!”
She was counting on the snow to muffle her voice and keep her somewhat protected. She was also hoping that the officer would be overcome with the desire to just leave her alone on account of her being far too much trouble to deal with.
There were fewer pine cones in this part of the tree, she thought. Time to carefully cross over to the next and make her way out of the forest. At least she could rest easy knowing she hadn’t started any conflagrations. It was something.
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Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 6:43 pm
”How was I acting threatening?!”
He knew how, of course, but that felt…well. He didn’t point it at her, right?!
Staurolite hid while a few more snaps, crackles, and pops went off from beyond the tree. Thankfully none of them got too, too close, so he didn’t feel like he was in any serious danger. If anything, this encounter was getting more drawn out despite him not getting anything out of it. Not to mention, the next time he looked he realized he couldn’t really see her anymore. He could sort of follow her movement when the trees shook a little too much, but it was hard to tell.
The captain moved out into the open, squinting his eyes as he tried to figure out if chasing her would be worth the trouble. With the exploding pinecones about, it felt riskier than usual, so after a moment he decided it was time to fold. Picking up a pinecone, he chucked it in her general direction. The gesture was more petulant than anything else, and he didn’t even wait for it to go off before teleporting away, to a familiar alley in the city.
He had a bit more work to do, but he decided he might be a bit more productive away from the pinecones this time.
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