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 Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2025 10:37 am
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.
Coughing, Nymphe wandered through the mostly empty city streets intent on doing her job as quickly as possible so that she could go home and wash the smell of cinnamon out of her brain. She wasn’t sure where the cinnafunk had rolled in from, but she’d decided that she hated it, thanks. Glancing around, she grimaced. Even in the dark, the air had a strange brownish tinge. Were there cinnamon factories in Destiny City, she wondered. Had one blown up? She would have expected a lot more screaming and noise if that had been the case.
Feeling irritated inside and out, the senshi of ambrosia ducked into an alleyway and began to tug at the edge of her skirts. If she was going to be out in this for much longer, she needed a mask of some sort or her lungs would shrivel up into angry raisins.
Managing to tear a strip off, she began to wrap it over her nose and mouth. As she finished, she felt an aura very close by. Since it didn’t feel creepy, she decided that it must be friendly. And therefore, she would do the polite thing and offer the unknown a mask. Working quickly, she tore away another strip of fabric.
“I will never be able to bake snickerdoodles again,” she muttered to herself as she stepped back out, heading towards the aura she’d felt.
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Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2025 6:57 pm
Being a magical girl was miserable. That was, surely, a very dramatic statement to make, but Karakorum felt pretty dramatic trudging through a cloud of cinnamon-scented fog. It felt like ti was getting everywhere--like even if she got out of this weird phenomenon, she'd be smelling cinnamon for days.
(Her cute cinnamon apple candle was probably going to get binned when she got home. Or at least locked up in a closet until she forgot that cinnamon was the devil and could smell it without wanting to choke. RIP, Super Cute Candle.)
She wanted to just go home and give the night up for miserable, maybe shower several times and then soak in some kind of not-cinnamon bath bomb to clear her senses and get the smell out of her everything, but she also felt...a little bit turned around. The problem was, it was hard to see in the cinnamon smog hell that she had stumbled into, and wandering throguh it until she found somewhere she recognized seemed....like a really miserable idea.
In lieu of that, she glanced at the sides of the street, hoping that maybe somewhere would be open and she could duck inside, giving herself a chance to hide from the...all of it.
Alas, no such luck there either.
So when another person came out of the fog, she perked up. Maybe they knew how to get out!
She waved, but didn't open her mouth, because tasting more of this nasty, nasty cinnamon sounded terrible. Instead, she stood still and hoped.
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Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2025 7:05 pm
By dint of a lot of squinting and guessing, Nymphe thought she saw movement in the cinnafog and headed for it. Her mask didn't help as much as she would have liked, but at least her tongue wasn't trying to shrivel up in her mouth so much.
Making her way towards the unknown person, she waved back and then reached out, hoping to connect soon.
"Don't move too much, please," she called. And then coughed. "I have a makeshift mask you can use if you want? Do you know what's going on witht this? It's so strange!"
This was, perhaps, the understatement of the hour, but Nymphe was trying.
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Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2025 8:01 pm
Oh, good, she was lucky. There really was another person here, and they seemed nice, or at least willing to help. Things were actually sort of going in a positive direction! What a miracle!
There was an offer of a makeshift mask, and Karakorum nodded, hoping the movement was visible enough in the cloud, before taking it from the extended hand and pressing it over her mouth. The relief wasn't much, but it was better than choking on every breath and having to deal with being bombarded by the strongest ******** spice in the universe apparently.
"I've got no idea what's happening," she admitted, from behind her new helpful face covering, "but thanks for the mask, my outfit doesn't have enough cloth to rip off." Well, maybe further down the skirt, but....that probably would have been too thick, or something.
"Do you have any idea where we are? I, uh, very definitely got lost in the fog." Maybe it would roll over, maybe they'd suffer forever, but if the other person had an idea where they were, that would at least improve the situation somewhat. "I'm Karakorum," she said. Because introducing herself was polite, even if she didn't want to talk too much.
It really was stupid to be so relieved to find someone else, but she'd been so desperate and stressed, a single other person's presence really did improve things greatly. With a little luck, they'd surely at least be able to find their way out. Probably. She hoped.
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Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2025 7:40 pm
In spite of how it further irritated her everything, Nymphe smiled in response to Kakakorum's thanks. It was a tiny thing, but really, it was nice to be appreciated. Reaching out for the other's arm, she gave a reassuring (she hoped) pat.
"Nymphe," she said shortly. It was better to talk as little as possible in this stuff. And she didn't think the other girl would mind. As to where they were? That seemed easy enough. Nymphe could still make out some things through the haze. But she wondered if the other girl was new to Destiny City. It was hard enough to learn a new city without something like this cinnamon hellscape complicating things!
Narrowing her eyes and thinking, she considered. They needed someplace still open and indifferent to costumed weirdos. Shops were closed, but there were 24 hour diners... They actually weren't too far from a couple of clubs.
Clubs would be slightly safer given how many used very dim lighting. And tended to not worry about odd clothing.
"Come with me. There is a rave club about a block from here. They won't care how we're dressed and we'll be able to get out of this ick and figure things out. Our only other options would be breaking into some shop and I don't want to commit a felony tonight."
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Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2025 8:21 pm
Karakorum nodded. No reason to open her mouth and breathe in more cinnamon, but she could agree anyway. And the pat did actually reassure her somewhat--but mostly it was just the presence of another person, someone who seemed way more in control of this situation than Karakorum felt.
Maybe she'd shove a box of KN95s into her subspace just in case she ran into this s**t again, since it would probably hang around for at least a little while longer. The curse of weird Destiny City s**t, she supposed.
If a club was nearby, that probably was the best place to go--and getting inside and out of the fog would give them time to recover and regroup.
Also, clubs were fun. More fun than anything else she could be doing on patrol.
"Rave club sounds great. Lead the way," she said, easily. ********, but it would be so good to be out of this.
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Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2025 8:39 pm
Delighted by the opportunity to be truly helpful, Nymphe grinned under her mask and carefully grabbed the other girl's arm. She gave a gentle tug and began to lead the way. They'd be out of the cinnamon haze soon enough. Even if it wasn't nearly soon enough for her poor eyeballs and throat.
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