Kua'kua's life had improved considerably lately - when she'd first arrived on Earth, it had been pleasantly warm, and she'd been able to rest somewhat comfortably in a nest of branches in a tall tree in the park. But the warmth had begun to dissipate, the days began to get shorter, and she learned this was what they called 'autumn' on this planet, and that soon something called 'winter' would arrive, and that would be even colder.
She had been fortunate, then, to be essentially adopted by other magical folk. She didn't know them very well yet, but they were helping her adjust, to learn how to survive here. She learned about the concept of electricity (but was a bit fuzzy on how it actually worked, if she was being honest, and even more confused over the concept of 'utility bills', but she'd simply zoned out when someone tried to explain the concept of paying some strange amorphous 'company' for elemental functions like air, water, and apparently electricity) and the benefits of a weighted blanket. She was, she figured, objectively much safer overall now than she had been a few short months ago, and much happier than she'd been on her own planet.
But she didn't like to spend time powered down. It felt - unnatural, after however many dozens of years she'd spent powered up on her home planet. It made her feel naked and exposed to be simply Kalani, and it felt like a lie to walk around with a false face and hide from the regular humans that would, evidently, not handle proof positive of alien life very well. She was in some ways very impressed with all the ingenious inventions humankind had created, and in other ways very disappointed with their lack of imagination. Surely most of them couldn't really believe that they were the only intelligent life in the whole universe, could they? The universe was bigger than all comprehension. How could anyone be so--so egotistical to assume that out of the billions of stars out there and all the little rocks floating in the cosmic dance, that only Earth had managed to evolve higher life?
She had tried to talk to one of her housemates about this, and they had informed her that some humans thought the Earth was flat, so probably she should lower her expectations for humanity's common sense. This had stunned and depressed her so severely she hadn't gotten out of bed for two days.
But she was out of bed now, and in truth, Kua'kua enjoyed being outdoors more than she liked being cooped up inside, warm and safe though inside was. While she was quite glad not to live in a tree anymore, she still enjoyed the park, and that was where she found herself wandering, looking out for - well, she didn't really know what she was looking out for. Trouble, maybe, or maybe a new friend? She wasn't sure, but she was sure she'd know it when she saw it.
Or, as it turned out, when she stepped on it.
It was too stabby and symmetrical to be a rock, and it just - it twinged something inside her, the same thing that had twinged when Sailor Tempesti had sent out the call for help with her homeworld, but - bad, somehow, where Sailor Tempesti's call had been good. It felt bad, and Kua'kua would wonder later why she had turned around and pushed through the dying grass to find what she'd stepped on, if she already knew that whatever it was was bad.
Whatever the reason, she did turn around and paw through the grass to find it: a small red die. It was oddly beautiful, for having been apparently abandoned and then stepped on, and Kua'kua reached for it with the intention of holding it up to the light, but she never got that far. The second her fingers wrapped around the small square, she was--
Well. She didn't know where she was, exactly, except that she was definitely not in Destiny City Park anymore. She definitely was not in Destiny City at all, probably, but Destiny City was so strange she couldn't rule it out entirely. It was very dark, and when Kua'kua tried to take a cautious step or two forward, she was immediately rebuffed by what appeared to be an invisible forcefield.
Her stomach dropped. Was she trapped? Her mind flashed back to the years and years spent on her home planet; that had been awful, but at least she'd been able to move. Here, wherever here was, she couldn't move more than a few feet in any direction.
Don't panic, she commanded herself, as sternly as she could manage. You are Sailor Kua'kua. You've dealt with worse than this. She closed her eyes for a moment, took three steadying breaths, then opened her eyes once more. Nope, still trapped in whatever nightmare this was - but...maybe, like on Tempesti, she wasn't alone? It seemed a vain and futile hope, but she had to try - if only to get a complete understanding of her current situation, and know exactly how much trouble she was in.
"Hello?" Kua'kua called. "Is anyone out there? Can you hear me? Hello?"
rejam
Rejam rolled 1 6-sided dice:
3Total: 3 (1-6)
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2025 8:57 am
Juliette06
Space 0: You have arrived here; nothing happens until you roll your die. Space 1: You feel eyes upon you, and hear a faint chuckling, like you’re the butt of someone’s joke. It sets a bad mood for the rest of this game; you’re already being judged–and, it looks like a long road ahead. Space 2: Something pale and ghostly slams into your back; you don’t see it, but it feels like it’s trying to push you forward–or to the side, or off the path. Thankfully, the magical glass walls stop you from going too far, but this is jarring–and might hurt. Space 3: A strange fog rolls in once you land here. You lose sight of nearly everything, including the game board. If you want to roll, you’re going to have to get close to the ground to even see where you’re supposed to go next. Hopefully nothing sneaks up behind you. Space 4: Something smells rotten. You can’t see very far into the darkness, but if you squint closely a dark form seems to be dragging itself along the ground. Sometimes you see a pale hand almost close enough to grab you–or, maybe something does grab you. It’s cold, and frightening, and it’s trying to drag you out of bounds.
Space 5: A dog barks, fierce and frightening. You can hear its growl and the hackles stand up on the back of your neck. You can practically feel spittle on you. It’s close. And it’s big. And it’s angry. If this beastly dog could reach you, no doubt it would try to tear you to shreds. Space 6: You hear a shrill, humming noise; it sounds almost like something is firing past you–and sometimes, you even feel a sharp burst of air, like something has just missed you. Maybe, even, it does get a slice out of you. Sharp, bladelike threads seem to string up around you; you’d best be careful not to get cut on any of them between now and your next dice roll. Space 7: Something is twitching and flapping above you, and while you might be minding your own business, something is a little too invested in what you’re doing. You can’t see them, but you suddenly hear shrill, high pierced noises that are disorienting and confusing. They can bring about dizziness and pain and can cause vertigo if you’re stuck in them for too long. Space 8: Something slithers across your foot, so fast that you might have thought you imagined it. Except, a few seconds later, it happens again. And then, again. Snakes keep moving across your space. If you move, they see you–and they might bite. Some of them hiss, some are capable of spraying a poisonous liquid that can cause itchiness or burning. Space 9: The smell of saltwater fills the air, and you can hear the water lapping against the shore. You hear boards creaking, and bells in the distance. And then, a song. Haunting. Ghostly, and calling you. For a second, you fall in love. And then, water fills your lungs. You’re choking, you can’t breathe. The song is loud and seems to caress you, even as a wet chill gathers in your square. Scaly hands reach for you, you gently caressing, and try to lure you into an endless sleep.
Space 10: A swampy smell fills the air. You take a step, and you seem to sink into it. Mud creeps over your feet, and you sink rapidly. Ankle deep, knee deep. Whether or not you squirm and fight against it, you are sinking. The mud is crushing and painful, and if you sink too deep it steals the breath from your lungs. There’s nothing to grab onto; you have to roll your dice quickly before that too gets sucked into the muddy quicksand. Space 11: You hear a frantic flapping above you, but that’s all the warning you get before a hoard of bats descend. They scratch and slap and screech, but you avoid getting bitten. For now. You’ve invaded their space and they seem keen to defend it. You can try to fight them, but the only way to escape them is to roll again. Space 12: The smell of smoke is in the air. You can’t see what’s burning, but you can hear distant screams, and–carnival music? It feels like people are running past you, and the air fills with panic and alarm–but there’s nowhere for you to go, and the smoke is so thick. You’d better roll quickly so you can get out of here. Space 13: At first, the square is quiet. Nothing seems amiss. It’s unnerving in how safe it seems. But then, it only takes a few seconds before you understand why. It’s just taken a moment for them to get to you. The patter of tiny feet is rapidly approaching. There’s no light to see them, but there’s a reflection in their beady eyes. Rats. Thousands of them. Chittering, frothing in the mouth. These are strangely grotesque, mutated abominations. They’re running at you like they haven’t got a fear in the world–only, hungry. And rage. If they get to you, they’ll eat you alive. The ground is trembling with their weight. You’d better roll quickly if you don’t wind up a meal. Space 14: The ground is sticky. You land on this and immediately dip, as though you’ve stepped on a trampoline. Close inspection reveals that you are standing on an intricately woven web–and your shoes are stuck. And something is skittering just on the horizon.
Space 15: Bats. Maybe you missed them attacking earlier, but they’re back again, and angrier than ever. Instead of just screeching or scratching, they’re swooping down and biting now–and the effects are instantaneous. The little teeth are sharp and painful, but once bitten you might feel agitated and prone to violence, and you might feel perpetually cold and hungry with no relief in sight. The effects might last when you leave the square–or they might linger for a few hours or days after you get out of here. Space 16: As you step into your square, something cracks. At first, you can’t tell what it is, but as your full weight moves onto the square, the ground shifts beneath you. It’s cold, and it’s ice, and a hole falls underneath you, plunging you into frigid waters. There’s enough floating ice that you should still be able to roll the dice to get out of here, but you have to go quickly–you’re soaked, in chilly water, and something just swam by your feet. Space 17: Something howls in the distance. It’s loud and echoes with such ferocity it seems to shake you. On the other side of you–another howl. Closer. This one is loud enough to hurt your ears. The ground trembles with the force of something charging at you. A growl, a snarl. Yellow eyes staring you down. There’s not just one monster out there–there’s several, and they’re all coming for you. Space 18: You smell something poison, something noxious. You pass through a haze of strange, green gas as you enter the square, but it fades after a few seconds. You feel cold. You feel empty. You start to decay. Maybe a part of you knows it’s an illusion, but in that split second when your body feels like it might go limp and when you look at your hand and see skin melting. You see bone. You’d best roll the dice so you don’t wind up a skeleton prop for the next player. Space 19: You’re so close! Almost at the end! But the space you’re standing on shifts and shakes and seems to crumble beneath you. You have to hold on; there’s nowhere to fall but down into the deep abyss. If you manage to hang on for long enough, you find some invisible purchase and can pull yourself back up, but it’s quite the ordeal. Make sure you don’t get cut on falling spaces! The ground restores itself once you roll again.
Space 20: The end; once you have arrived here you are free to leave. You will see be basked in the glow of a beautiful, opalescent aura that will take you back home. If you arrived with a guest, you can leave without them or choose to stay until they make it to the end as well. When you arrive back in Destiny City, you may choose to keep the six sided die–if nothing else, it’s pretty! Though, it doesn’t seem to have any magical qualities, that might be for the best.
More than a decade of avoidance should have taught Maus the dangers of touching strange objects. And it had, it was just that he hadn't even needed to touch it - had been, in fact, withdrawing his hand in the sudden instinctive avoidance of Magical Danger.
He stepped out of the mundane darkness of Destiny City and into a darkness of a decidedly different quality, with a sense of resignation. The only way out in these situations was generally through, and as with so many things - more so, he felt, as a Knight than as an agent, although his memories of the latter were so shattered that he could not be sure - the correct teacher seemed to be instinct.
It took him a moment to realize that he was not alone: that he had stepped onto the space next to - well, a glance suggested one of those spacefaring Senshi, like Feronia. He paused, looking at her intently, and then gave her a somewhat wan smile.
"Can't tell if you're a hallucination or something," he said, apologetically explanatory. "But I guess we're playing together. Good luck, or whatever I'm supposed to say here."
Better to assume together than against one another, although he quietly told himself that if the latter was the case, he'd rather not find out what happened if he lost. He was already rolling his die when he said it, stooping down to scoop it back up and taking leggy strides - despite his lack of height - towards the indicated square without any further formalities. Something about being trapped in a dark place between worlds was giving him a level of anxiety that he could not adequately describe, and that he had to chalk up to something that his body remembered where his head had forgotten. He was swallowed up almost immediately from view by a swell of heavy fog which seemed to arrive and settle from nothing.
Compelled, however, by the idea that the stranger might be someone as real as himself, he paused.
Kua'kua started, and she realized belatedly that she hadn't been expecting anyone to actually respond. She had, on some level, already accepted that she was once again in a pit of darkness, by herself, with no clear way out.
To be suddenly proven wrong washed her in - some kind of emotion she couldn't quite identify. Relief and fear - what if this person was an enemy? What if they had to fight each other to get out of whatever nightmare this was?
No, don't assume the worst, she tried to tell herself, even though the worst was absolutely the baseline standard she'd gotten used to on her home planet. But she wasn't there anymore, and so far, she had no reason to think the stranger was possessed, evil, an enemy, or anything other than another unfortunate soul who had foolishly picked up a die somewhere in Destiny City.
"I'm not a hallucin--wait--"
She had just located the stranger in the darkness when he seemed to disappear, covered by a cloud of fog. Her heartrate spiked - the only thing worse than having another person around was suddenly losing that other person. No no no no--
Kua'kua more dropped than rolled her little die, and the noise of it hitting the ground startled her. She couldn't let this stranger fight whatever came next alone - and she refused to be left alone herself. Not now - not again.
"I am Sailor Kua'kua, what is--!" Kua'kua's sentence ended in a yelp, drowned out by the hounds of Hell, or at least that was what the Senshi thought. Her home planet did not have anything resembling an Earthen 'dog', and they all seemed - loud and strong and dangerous, and Kua'kua--
She did not like dogs. She did not like regular dogs, and these dogs, that she could suddenly hear howling, snarling, and barking, seemingly getting closer to her with every passing second--
These dogs wanted to kill her. She knew that, to the center of her being. To die was one thing--to be killed was another--
"No no no no--!" She went to cast an attack, but stopped, having backed into the invisible wall that kept her from fleeing. Her magic may be illusory, but she somehow doubted that it could get through the walls anymore than she herself could. Maybe the walls would protect her? Or maybe her new...fellow captive, if not friend, would see where to go next, to get away before the dogs fell upon her and tore her to bits.
rejam
Rejam rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1Total: 1 (1-6)
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2025 9:42 am
"Keep moving," said a voice from somewhere within the fog, followed by the clatter of dice. He stepped out, then, onto the next square, only to immediately dry heave.
"Apologies," he retched. "They're probably not real," he added helpfully. "But you should keep moving, on the off chance."
He was backing very slowly away from something that was crawling out of the fog behind him, bouncing the die in his hand, and then kicking at something at his feet.
"Keep moving," he repeated, and then, in a somewhat strained joviality: "Just as quick as you can manage it would be nice."
The baying got louder and louder and Kua'kua closed her eyes against the impending doom--
They're probably not real, her new friend said. Kua'kua's eyes opened immediately, shock giving way to irritation instantly. So this place was a place of trickery, then, playing on their fears.
How dare it. How dare it torment them like this.
Keep moving, her new friend said. Keep moving. She could do that. She knelt quickly and rolled the die again, as that was what got her from the relative safety of nothing happening in a strange space to the unsafety of evil bloodthirsty dogs echoing all around her.
When she looked up, the dogs were getting fainter until she didn't hear anything but faint echoes of whimpers and squeaks.
Wait. No. That wasn't the remainders of dog noises. This was something else entirely, and she only just placed the noise when a horde of bats swooped down at her, furious shadows beating their leathery wings at the invasion of her presence.
"Petal Perfume!" Kua'kau shouted, out of instinct more than any actual hope that the attack would do any good. The illusory petals swirled around her, mixing with the bats, and Kua'kua had no choice but to cover her head and try and keep the bats from going for her eyes or mouth.
"There are--bats!" Kua'kua shouted, unsure if the bats were swooping over her and heading for her new friend, or if they were disappearing harmlessly into the void behind her.
Quote:
Sailor Kua'kua calls her attack and blows on her palm, causing illusory petals of the hellebore plant to shoot out within 10 feet. Enemies who inhale their fragrance will experience delirium and nausea. Targets may feel disoriented, have difficulties concentrating, or feel forgetful. This attack lasts for 30 seconds, and may be used three times. Players can choose to take lasting damage or have effects linger.
rejam
Rejam rolled 1 6-sided dice:
2Total: 2 (1-6)
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2025 12:05 pm
"All kinds of nasty things," he agreed, finding himself in another square and taking a moment to suck in a few lungfuls of air that didn't smell so bad he could taste it.
Something else was in the air, however, that was worse than a stench. He ducked - again, largely by instinct - and felt something whiff uncomfortably near his face. A bat would have been preferable.
"Boy," he said, the cheer growing even more strained, "I sure hope I was right that this isn't real, because I think I just missed a blow dart to the face." A whizzing sound. "Or two."
