Poultrygeist (15) : As Destiny City is a bustling metropolis, it’s not unexpected that there should be some strange animals running the streets. Sometimes it’s a tiger, sometimes a monkey, sometimes a chicken. Sometimes it’s something worse. Strange egg clusters have appeared in Destiny City’s parks and officials aren’t really sure what they are; these eggs have nothing inside of them. Though it’s an anomaly, they are chalking it up to teenaged pranks. However, they have advised to just leave the eggs as they are. Nobody wants to say why, but if you’re out late at night, you’ll find out. In the darkness, whispered between the sounds of the city: a guttural, rasping cluck. The creature stands on stilt-like legs, rooted to the ground with razor-sharp talons. It wears a cloak of long, oily feathers that drag on the ground with a sinister scraping. If you stare into the darkness, piercing red eyes stare back at you. That’s all it takes for a confrontation: a mangled bird, maybe a chicken in another life, comes barreling out at you. It stands easily as tall as a person, but the proportions are all wrong. The smell of sulfur follows it as it lunges, pecking and screaming and scratching as it attempts to chase you away. Maybe, from the nests full of empty eggs. The battles are fierce, but fleeting; it will viciously try to chase you away but the effects are always the same: at some point, the eggs are crushed. As always, there’s nothing inside of them, but with one final wail, the bird will vanish into a plume of foul smoke.
Achird needed to cool off for a little while. To do something without marinating in his feelings at home. His life had meant something for a little while, and now it just didn't seem to. No wonder people acted so stupid and despondent after heartbreak. It really did hurt that much. He had thought so much of it was exaggeration, that people couldn't really feel that much, so... so deeply. But it ached in a way he'd never known before, ached in a way that went down to his bones. Weariness clung to him stubbornly no matter how much he slept. He almost wished it were possible to go back in time and apologize for the things he'd said about love, before. Before he truly knew what it could be like. And it had only been three months of it. What if this charade had dragged on for a year?
He felt the signature of a nearby Page and for a moment, he didn't want the company of another stupid Knight. But his desire for a fresh face, someone that didn't know anything about him all over again, won out, and he headed towards the aura.
"See anything out here yet?" he called out to them. "I'm Achird, by the way. Of Aubergines."
Noir Songbird
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 11:17 pm
Pergamon felt as if he was beginning to get used to...being a Knight. To serving something greater than himself. To working towards a real goal of improving the world, and his Wonder, and all of that.
Honestly, he was pretty sure he liked this. Which felt strange to even think about, all things considered. Everything had been so despondent for him for so long, it felt good to feel a little clearer. He was even trying to cut back on his drinking, more; he'd had a glass of whiskey before coming out, but that was plenty less than his usual, and he hadn't even brought any with him. A huge improvement over what he might have otherwise done on any given evening.
And tonight, it seemed like he was going to be lucky enough to run into yet another alien Senshi; he was perhaps slightly warier in his approach, but this one at least didn't seem hostile like the strange woman in the cave.
"Nothing yet," Pergamon said, with a pleasant smile. "Pergamon of the Moon. Pleasure to meet you, Achird."
He felt like he learned more about Senshi with every encounter. The ones he'd known previously were abstract concepts--Enthusiasm, Exhaustion, Nihility, Hatred--but apparently aubergines were also a thing that someone could be the Senshi of.
What a strange and beautiful universe they lived in.
Achird nodded, then paused, baffled, and re-examined Pergamon's outfit with a more critical eye. "Of the Moon, you said? Nice to meet you as well, but... That's a new development from the last thousand years. I've heard of plenty of Knights of oh, say, Ida, or Pluto, or what have you, but of the Moon? That's definitively new. How fascinating. Could I ask you how that—"
As he approached, he spotted... Oh, no. One of the nests. A shiver went up his spine, and not a moment later did he hear the dreaded cawing of one of those horrible chickens.
"Could Colonel Sanders please get a hold of these damn chicken turkey duck whatever things?" he hissed desperately, whirling around to face the demonic bird.
It squinted its beady little eyes at him and cawed again, scraping its talons on the ground, and then charged.
Noir Songbird
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 12:04 am
"I understand we're new," Pergamon said, and he was very ready to launch into an excited explanation--the fact that he was a Knight of some brand new order that hadn't existed in the past, when most had, was fascinating to him, and he was eager to discuss it with someone from that time--but it seemed there would not be an option to do so. Not for now, at least.
"Can you get the eggs?" Pergamon asked, bringing up his journal like a shield. A small, sort of pathetic one, but ti had worked before. "That was what seemed to chase it off, last time I fought it--destroying the nest."
Hopefully they would be able to manage it swiftly, without either of them getting hurt.
He ran in to intercept its charge, only half worrying about what might happen to him. He had backup, after all; that was a blessing in and of itself. And he could swing his journal directly at its beaky face, which he did, with some eagerness, meeting its charge with an attack of his own.
Honestly, Achird would have liked to hear the explanation of the new Knight faction from the person he'd just run into—Pergamon or something like that—but the fowl beast took more precedence.
"Ah, you've dealt with one before?" he hollered over his shoulder as he sprinted towards the nest. It was a stupid question; of course the Page had if he knew to target the nest of eggs. Still, it seemed a little shocking to Achird for some reason.
Pergamon's wallop knocked the bird off its claws, sending it spinning across the stone and scrabbling for purchase. But by the time it got up—
Achird stomped the eggs as fast as he could, making sure every last one was completely destroyed.
The bird wailed and disappeared in that stinky smoke it left behind. Achird wrinkled his nose and moved away from the space, back towards Pergamon.
"Good work," he said. "Would you like to patrol together?"
It couldn't hurt, after all.
Noir Songbird
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 12:31 am
Pergamon would have loved to avoid another face full of foul smelling smoke, but alas, such was. At least the monster was defeated, and he could take a moment to catch his breath and flash his new patrol partner a friendly grin.
"Well done," he praised, the way he might praise one of his students who had done particularly well on a paper or an in-class assignment. "And I would be thoroughly happy to patrol for a little while with you. I would hate to run into another one alone."
It was unlikely, perhaps, but the odds were never zero and he wasn't willing to take the chance.
