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 Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 11:21 pm
Well, this was familiar.
It was almost like he was watching a rerun of an episode of his life where he started out his day by making bad decisions, and it was now culminating in probably one of the worst ways possible.
Currently, Xavier was immobilized and being held overhead by some creature that was apparently made out of a glob of black paint come to life by way of electrical charging if the way it crackled and popped as it moved was any indication. He might have struggled more if the static wasn’t constantly shocking him, causing pain to constantly ripple through him whenever he moved. It had some sort of appendages fully looped twice around his chest as it trudged through the streets of DC and eventually into an old, abandoned construction site under cover of night, no doubt aided by the heavy clouds overhead that had been threatening stormy weather all week. There had been lightning and the constant rumble of thunder, yes, but so far (and thankfully, as far as he was concerned) no rain.
Considering he couldn’t really move with the way the stupid thing was holding him, rather than wasting what little energy he had Xavier decided it might be better to study his new surroundings, see if he could find something that might help him with some kind of escape attempt as soon he was let go. It wasn't long after he started slowly taking stock of what was around when a bolt of lightning broke his focus, drawing his attention immediately to the area where it struck.
There, now just a short distance away, was a large pit with bubbling black matter inside that crackled and popped in the same way the creature that had captured him did. As though on cue, a glob of the matter separated itself from the “soup” and an identical creature formed at the edge of the pit, and with nonexistent eyes it watched its brethren make its approach.
And Xavier could swear his heart stopped and all sense of life just drained from his body when it slowly smiled the toothiest of smiles and revealed the sharpest set of teeth he’d ever seen in his life.
“Uhh…” the teen narrowed his eyes at it, still for all of another three seconds before he suddenly found the strength to try and struggle against his captor. Futile as it was, if the thing was trying to feed him to a pit full of its family…he wouldn’t go down without trying his hardest to fight against it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 5:34 pm
“Hold on!” Amarynthos shouted. He hadn’t been able to see much of what was going on, but the rolls of oozing youma he had definitely seen a person. With no energy signature to detect, he figured it was probably a civilian and–
Oh, crap, was that Xavier? That definitely looked like a Gallo, and a familiar one.
The youma was wrapped around him in a way that made it look impossible to just pry them apart. Amarynthos was willing to leap in and start trying but he was afraid of doing more harm than good, which left the second, better option:
Magic.
He and Ephesus had just been visiting the Moon; they’d spent much of today working on helping Lucien make some shields so the trip to their Wonders was supposed to be refreshing.
Good thing they hadn’t stayed for too long.
They’d returned to Destiny City just in time to see the youma trying to drag Xavier away.
He didn’t know if a youma could feel self conscious, but he knew his magic was uncomfortable and at least distracting.
Quote: Knight Magic: Moonlight sparkles in the air around Amarynthos and all enemy targets within fifteen feet will feel enlightened; they will become hypercritical of their flaws and shortcomings, and may rapidly be filled with regret for instances where they failed in the past. The forced introspection can be incredibly distracting and make targets feel overwhelmed and unable to interact with the present. They may suffer physical symptoms of stress, such as aches and pains, a racing heart, dizziness, exhaustion, or even anxiety or irritability. The magic can be channeled for up to 60 seconds; the circle will move with Amarynthos but if characters leave the radius the effects will fade. Players can choose to take lasting damage if they prefer, but otherwise all symptoms will fade when the magic is no longer being channeled.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2025 5:56 pm
Ephesus was horrified to see Xavier struggling against a youma.
“Hang on, we’ll save you!” he squeaked, taking a quick step to the side so he wouldn’t get in Amarynthos’ way when he used his magic. Ephesus wanted to use a little more force to free Xavier, but he couldn’t risk hurting him!
And the glob of-- whatever that youma was -- it was pretty gross and scary!! He didn’t want to scare Xavier even more! Although, being eaten was also pretty scary!
As soon as Amarynthos started channeling his magic, though, Ephesus rushed closer to the youma and Xavier, shoving the end of his scepter into the youma’s mouth. He doubted it would do anything but make it mad, but at least it couldn’t bite down with something already blocking its teeth! Oh, he was going to have nightmares that night!
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2025 9:20 pm
Two voices broke the somewhat silence (accounting for the rumbling thunder and all that), pulling Xavier’s attention away from the potential horrors lying ahead. Turning toward wherever they were coming from, he felt his heart reach for a small bit of hope at the sight of two perfect strangers, each voluntarily stepping in to try and save him, as though he was someone important enough that they felt it was worth risking their lives to do it.
No, the bridge of his nose was not prickling.
And no, there was nothing welling in his eyes.
He desperately clung to those thoughts as he watched sparkles surround one of his saviors…and that somehow caused the creature to stop in its tracks and slowly, the longer it looked, loosen the grip it had on him. Xavier took that as a sign–and also one of the two had come up and shoved something in the thing’s razor-toothed mouth.
That, and a bit more wiggling on Xavier’s part, seemed to do the trick!
The creature let him loose…and he dropped with a thud just behind it. “I’m good! I’m good!” he groaned as he scrambled onto his feet. The creatures, in the meantime, shook (what could very possibly have been) their heads, as though they were trying to shake off a horrible headache (could they even get those?) and failing.
It was bizarre, to say the least, but he wasn’t about to spend time worrying about the things that had just been about to eat him.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 5:58 am
Ephesus was so smart. He was clever, and fast, and made such a good call by giving the youma something else to sink its teeth into. And Xavier! Good job! Mary couldn't just exclaim that he was proud of him for that maneuver without risking being overly friendly. There was a fine line to walk when it came to being powered up and trying to protect people who knew you.
Amarynthos hoped he wouldn’t have need of further magic this evening but if the situation demanded it, he had some to spare. As soon as the youma released Xavier, he breathed a sigh of relief. There was a brief moment where he wondered if he should just call for his summon and let it handle the youma.
…Except, it was scary enough. Xavier could probably benefit from not having to deal with a roaring bear, no matter if its intentions were only to help.
With the youma on its own, Amarynthos didn’t have to worry so much about collateral damage, which freed up a great deal of options for him. He moved to his favorite go-to when it came to youma–bashing them over the head.
He positioned himself between Xavier and the youma as best he could, as he continued to channel his magic, brought the bottom of his staff down–hard. For being glass, it had a lot of durability, and Amarynthos was really putting it to the test. This would have been easier if there were only one to deal with, but with things as they were now, he wasn’t even sure how many were around them–and if what they could see were all there really were.
"Stay close," he insisted, partly to Ephesus and mostly to Xavier. He brought his staff down again, hoping to dust this youma sooner rather than later. "You'll be okay," he promised, but his eyes were on this youma and he didn't want to split their attention more than necessary. "Tell us if you see anything else getting too close, we'll take care of it!"
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 6:37 am
In the pure panic of trying to stop the youma from eating Xavier, Ephesus had absolutely missed that it had multiple heads?? Oh no!!
Ephesus let out a startled squeak of distress as he stumbled backwards and-- oh! His weapon! Wait, he needed that!
Okay, so while Xavier managed to scramble back to his feet, Ephesus grabbed onto the end of his scepter to try and yank it back out of the youma’s mouth-- many mouths-- oh, there were a lot more teeth than he realized! He’d only seen the ones closest to Xavier!! Thankfully it seemed to be affected by Amarynthos’ magic so he managed to wiggle his poor, dented scepter free and fell backwards with a thud on the ground.
Oh! But Amarynthos was right there, ready to whack at the youma. He was so brave and strong! Thank goodness, because he was tangled up in his cape now and oh-- oh, he was not doing a good job with this. But at least Xavier was being saved!
“Yes! We’ll take care of it!” he squeaked in agreement, quickly scrambling to get himself back to his feet so he could watch their backs.
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2025 10:35 pm
They wanted to stay?!?!?
Though it looked like they could handle themselves with the way they were bashing the things in, if the “soup” was going to spit out extras of this…this…thing! It felt like they could get outnumbered really fast.
Xavier stammered as he took a few tentative steps back, worry and fear gripping him in ways one might expect it to grip anyone in this sort of situation (even if it was super weird and like it was completely out of this world), nevermind someone his age. “B-but we could just run!” he finally managed to say after taking another step back, though he immediately stopped moving and shut his mouth again as he watched in horror as another glob hopped out of the pit, forming another identical creature off to their left somewhere not too far away.
Now it was three on three.
But really more like three on two, because how exactly was he supposed to help here?! If he stepped in, he was sure one of the things would just grab him and yeet him into the pit, and then what? The efforts of these superheroes would be completely in vain!
And also, he’d be dead! Possibly.
Probably.
He was no main character in a novel, after all. He was probably just one of those extras, meant to help propel one of the main or secondary characters forward in their progression. So in context, his death was maybe meant to help one of these two. Or maybe both!
Hopefully both. That somehow felt a little more satisfying to think about, in a very morbid kinda way.
Xavier felt a panic slowly rising as he replayed this scenario in his head however many times. But then there was a flicker to his right that pulled his attention away for the briefest of moments. A merciful distraction from his morbid thoughts. It was gone by the time he looked, but he thought it might have been a spark of some kind, and he attributed it to the lightning-y weather. He was about to look away–there were other more pressing things happening around him, he thought–when it happened again.
Definitely a spark, though it came and went so he was about to look away again when it happened again.
A cluster of sparks this time, and then before his very eyes a cube just…manifested–as in, appeared completely out of thin air–as though summoned by those sparks. He was almost tempted to ask if the other two saw what he was seeing, but looking up they were obviously preoccupied (for his sake, he reminded himself) with, again, more important things.
So he did what felt natural–he grabbed the cube.
From there it was the weirdest sensation of…something. Energy? Power? Whatever it was, he could feel it welling up and flowing out from somewhere deep inside. Before long it fully wrapped him up in a blinding, blue-white light for just a few seconds before slowly fading away. In its wake, he just stood there, holding the cube while wearing the most curious expression on his face.
And he felt…weird.
Guine Sorry, it turned into an essay. OTL Kyuseisha no Hikari Please lmk if I need to change anything. ;;
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