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Personal Raincloud (11) : It’s a beautiful, sunny day in Destiny City–for everyone but you. There’s not a cloud in the sky–except for yours. No matter where you go, a dark cloud seems to hover, casting shadows wherever you go. It’s been raining since you woke up today, and it’s like bad luck and bad weather just follows you. It’s a constant downpour, always exactly where you are. The raincloud is usually big enough to easily cover a full building, so if you stick around for too long, your misfortune will turn into someone else’s too. The raincloud might follow you for a few hours or for the whole day before slowly fading; there’s no escaping it, or the strange, sombre mood that seems to follow you.
“In the middle of nowhere-” Kitty hissed to no one, golden eyes darting between the massive tree trunks that dominated his entire view. A forest. Always on the rare occasions that he decided to give his world a chance, he found himself brought to the depths of this forest, where the trees were so broad that they may as well be buildings, where the sky was completely blotted out by the dense canopy overhead, where everything smelled… wet, mildewy. Disgusting. It was certainly one of the reasons that he didn’t really care to come here. “You know this is not what I want.”
Again, speaking to practically no one, but if all this nonsense about starseeds and cauldrons and worlds was to be believed, this planet should give him what he wanted. Even if their attachment was… tenuous and he hadn’t forged as strong a connection over the years as he could have, Kitty was still this world’s Senshi. It should know he didn’t want to wind up in the uncommonly cold, murky, dark forest on his trips here.
His world had to have cities. No one wearing clothes such as his fuku would be skipping around through the muck. The fabric was light and shimmery, the gold at his collar delicately crafted, glinted threads woven through his hair.
And these heels!
These heels were not made for walking. Here, specifically.
There was no part of Kitty that believed that a world he was Senshi of had a people who resided mainly in the trees, like savages. “If you showed me something I wanted to see, I would be here more often,” he tried to reason. “But if you make every visit a chore, I’ll stop coming altogether. And then what will you do, hm? Wait another thousand years for the next Kitty? If they only have my memories and impressions to go on, I promise they won’t be very enamored with you, either.” He knew so little about his namesake, but every (brief) trip yielded literally nothing he was interested in learning.
He wasn’t sure what he was interested in learning, but how was he supposed to figure it out if he was continuously and consistently dropped here, of all places! In the dark! In the mud! Where it seemed like nothing of civilization had been left behind! There were not even any insects or animals because his world was a hair’s breadth from death- If it could be more enticing, he would do more! But Kitty didn’t care about all this, and he struggled to find reason to persist.
With an annoyed huff, he gathered up the sheet fabric draping from his hips to the moist earth and began to trudge forward toward- well, nowhere and nothing. There was nothing to see in this forest, and he felt confident that it would take him at least several hours to find his way out, and even if he achieved that, there were no guarantees that any beautiful architecture would be waiting for him once he escaped the treeline.
“You need help from me,” Kitty continued. “But you’re not providing anything I can’t live without. Frankly, this magic is almost useless; it barely works half the time, and when it does ‘work,’ it still barely does anything at all.”
The little boost to his speed and strength he received from powering up was more beneficial than anything else, and even that seemed negligible sometimes. So many of his opponents were faster and stronger still, achieving a level Kitty couldn’t hope to replicate with just practice and dedication. His world had to give him that extra power- But it kept dropping him here! They were clearly closer to adversaries than allies!
He only felt a little like a fool, speaking to no one and getting no response, but it helped to vent a little. And maybe if he was earnest with emotions, this stupid, ridiculous world would eventually get the hint and bring him somewhere proper so that Kitty might foster a fondness for literally anything here, instead of just-
A thick, fat wet drop landed smack dab in the middle of his face, splattering him with a (weirdly sweet-smelling) water. It was truly amazing how immediately the sounds of a heavy rain rose in a cacophony around him, as if it came in all at once to pound down on the trees. “You must be joking-” Kitty seethed as he stomped- tripped- skipped through foliage toward the nearest huge tree trunk. Not that it provided any shelter. Even the canopy couldn’t stop such an intense onslaught. The rain just fell heavier and wetter once it had escaped the leaves overhead, bringing with it that scent of sweetness.
Kind of like vanilla? Shockingly pleasant, when everything else in the forest was such a s**t-show.
He pressed himself close to the massive tree he’d selected, something with a deeply desaturated, purply wood. Nothing like what he’d see at home. It was a bit strange looking, but this was a strange planet, he supposed. Kitty dragged a hand over the bark as he stepped around and around and around it, circling the great trunk for inspection. It was so annoying to be here and in a storm like this! But where else was he supposed to go? Escape from here seemed complicated, no matter how much he wished to see more than some weird wood.
How worth it was perseverance?
A muted sound of annoyance and- and perhaps uncertainty and maybe a little despair- slipped from his throat, high and whining. Kitty flounced down against the trunk, putting his back to it as he drew his legs up to his chest. “We could help each other. Is that so much to ask?” The rain fell, mists rising in a sweet, purply haze that seemed to coil around the trunks.
His head hurt, but only a little. Kitty pressed his palms to his eyes, closing them for only a few moments.
It did not even occur to him to pull out his phone and return to Earth.
[1013]
