Biting Chill ( 18 ) : The cold is strangely harsh, and even the still wind is vicious enough to sting. But the cold isn't the worst part of tonight--it's what comes with it. Out of a swirl of blowing snow, a massive, wispy wolf takes shape, enormous and snarling, with fur spiked like jagged icicles. Its eyes glow with a cold, wild intelligence, and before you can even react, it lunges as though you’ve trespassed deep into its territory. Every strike it makes feels like the bite of winter itself. Wherever its claws slash, wherever its jaws snap, frost cakes over. Even if you're lucky enough not to take massive damage, the cold seeps bone deep. When you manage to land a hit, the creature bleeds a strange, clear blood--icy water that freezes instantly into slush on the ground. The more damage it takes, the more its form flickers, shredded like wind-torn snow. The wolf fights with the relentless instinct of a dire beast, but it is not invulnerable. It will never run. It will fight until its body is broken and flickering, then--finally--a sudden gust will rip through the air and carry its dissolving body away. Howls echo on the wind. The rest of its pack probably isn't too far behind.
There had been a lot of celebrations within her home over the past three weeks or so. It had been something of a crash course in Earthen culture, and it had left Kua'kua disoriented and overwhelmed, but also warm and connected. It was strange how those feelings could all exist simultaneously in one little body. She belatedly felt bad, as she hadn't had any gifts for anyone, but nobody seemed to mind; mercifully, they all understood that she was new around here, and hadn't fully mastered the concept of Earthling money yet. Or money at all, really, since her planet had used the barter system when they used anything at all, and her housemates were, blessedly, patient as she figured out this strange new planet she was to call home, at least for the foreseeable future.
But as warm and safe and connected as the various holidays had made her feel, Kua'kua was still overwhelmed and confused by them, and there was only so much party she could handle before she felt a bit like she was drowning, and when she felt like she was drowning, she found solace where she always had: her Senshi duties.
That was why she found herself prowling the streets, thoroughly under-dressed for the weather, which simply refused to rise to livable temperatures. It seemed that most other powered beings were, sensibly, inside or tucked away wherever Negaverse people went when they weren't out terrorizing the citizens or doing their nefarious deeds. Even regular human criminals seemed to have retired for the evening.
Kua'kua was just about to decide to join them when she - heard it. She froze where she stood, the thought that the sound was just the wind, whipping through trees and screeching over buildings.
But Kua'kua did not like dogs, and she knew that sound. She'd heard it before - granted, then, its source had been illusory. She somehow did not think that would be the case this time.
So putting her own anxieties aside as best she could, Kua'kua ran toward the high, keening howl that shuddered through her very bones, and hoped against hope that whatever creature it came from wasn't hungry.
rejam
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2025 10:55 pm
xxJuliette06
She would find quickly that she was not the only one running towards the sound. A signature flared up into life quite nearby, and only seconds later she was joined by someone who, although familiar, looked a little different than he had last time: less like a boy in pajamas he was too old for, more like a grown-a** man who might or might not be useful.
Maus's gratitude on finding himself immediately greeted by the sense of a nearby ally quickly evaporated - first to the size of the signature, and then to the size of the person it was attached to, and then finally by realizing that he knew her, and his only impressions had been of a lost-seeming creature who did not exactly radiate confidence, in their short time together.
Still, she was running towards it, which counted for a lot. He was aware of this, giving her her mental kudos without even pausing to consider that these also applied to himself, and sang out in a greeting that narrowly avoided coming from between gritted teeth.
"Small world, yadda yadda, you get it. Tell me you've dealt with these things before and figured out where their weak spot is," he said, forced cheer a little more strained than his usual. The pain in his side - largely healed but persistently lingering - registered as a stitch, which might as well have been from all the sprinting he'd been doing lately, out of shape as he was. Whether the sharp sensation of cold that accompanied it was all in his head or not was irrelevant. A lot of things were all in his head. That didn't make them suck any less.
And then, almost as an afterthought: "Sorry I ******** up all you chances for a crown at the tournament. Not like Grieve did you much better," he couldn't help but point out.
"What? Oh--!" Kua'kua almost stopped running out of sheer surprise when Maus, of all people, joined her in heading for the noises. In truth, his appearance was less - reassuring and more...concerning, given his performance at Joy's Tournament. But he had survived the gameboard with a bit more dignity than she had, so what room did she have to judge?
Besides, he did look - different, now. She was about to comment on this, but upon rounding the corner, their target came into view.
"Perhaps one day you and I will face a problem one of us have faced before," Kua'kua said, voice only a little wobbly as she focused on the wolf in front of them. Her eyes widened slightly and she swallowed visibly.
She did not like dogs.
And this was a very big dog, that did not look friendly in the least.
"If we survive this," Kua'kua said, voice still quiet, "I will give you my favor next time."
rejam
Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2026 7:08 pm
Juliette06
"Easy favor, then. I already survived one of them," he said, with the same forced cheer, "and I didn't even really have any help that time."
This was mostly true. Mostly was doing a lot of heavy lifting, however.
"But I still don't know what the best tactic is besides hitting the s**t out of it with whatever's handy and hoping for the best," he added, circling a little to draw the thing's attention and get it within range of a magic he was still feeling out and which might not even work on a non-human enemy at all. "So you just hit it with whatever's handy and I'll do the hoping."
As he said it, however, he was reaching into subspace. It was unfortunate that subspace was so pernickety about weapons, but for the time being it still, apparently, didn't consider spray paint a weapon. The can was nearly full and therefore tolerably heavy, and with the weight of a squire's arm behind it it made an entirely-satisfying thwang when it bounced off between the wolf's eyes. Whether it had done a lot of damage or not was questionable, but it certainly succeeded in pulling focus as he scrambled to try and retrieve it.
As the can thudded off the creature, Kua'kua couldn't help but smile. The fact that it didn't sail harmlessly through the creature meant that it was a real - or at least non-illusory - creature, and that meant she was reasonably certain that she would be able to hurt it.
This would not be like the creatures that inhabited that cursed gameboard. No, she could make this thing hurt.
...Assuming the howling wind didn't completely disperse her petals, anyway.
While it was distracted by Maus, Kua'kua darted forward and blew on her palm, then watched as her hellebore petals swirled around the creature.
A beat. Two.
Then the wolf stumbled slightly, and Kua'kua grinned. It was working.
...But the wolf wasn't exactly retreating.
"Your turn!" Kua'kua called to Maus, as the wolf, wobbily, turned to look at her, snarl on its face. "I don't think it cares for poison, if that helps your tactics at all!"
rejam
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2026 7:06 pm
Juliette06
"I did not have the foresight to carry cyanide on me," he said, somewhat grimly. He was - discreetly, but definitely - still angling to keep himself between her and the wolf, or at least to make himself the nearer and more appealing target. He might have been even more insistent, if he'd known her feelings about the cold, but it was enough as it was that he was not only motivated by general goodwill but by the realization that she seemed to have more useful weapons on her side than he did.
He did not want to use his own weapon. He was still not entirely clear on what it did, and Lete's reaction to it did not make him keen to experiment with it on something that might fly into a berserker rage as a result of his deploying it. Still. It had the shape, didn't it, of something poisonous?
So he thumped the bag heavily against a nearby bollard and hoped for the best. He did not get that, but he did get the wolf backing away and cowering in abrupt confusion, snapping frantically at empty air as if to attack an enemy that was not there. <********, I should start carrying antifreeze," he realized aloud.
Kua'kua raised her eyebrows slightly as he thumped a bag against a post. It was difficult to make out against the swirl of snow and ice the wolf seemed to carry with it, but she was nearly positive that a small poof of--something--puffed out of the bag.
And Kua'kua knew enough about poisons to know that puff of something was having a definite effect. The wolf let out a long, pained howl - no longer the frightening hunting call, but rather the frightened cry of an animal in pain. Kua'kua would have felt bad for it, except for the part where it wanted to make dinner out of their bodies.
Also, unless Kua'kua was suddenly prone to mild hallucinations based on wishful thinking, it looked like the wolf was beginning to - yes, it definitely was becoming a bit transparent, flickering in and out like the Loud Story Box during a storm, much to the annoyance and displeasure of her housemates.
"Good!" Kua'kua called to him, rewarding him with a bright smile that changed the whole landscape of her face, making her look younger and considerably less haunted. "Do that again!"
As if to follow her own advice, Kua'kua once again called her magic forth, blowing illusory hellebore petals into the snowy vortex around the wolf. It whimpered and cowered, but not quite in their direction - briefly, Kua'kua wondered what it was that the wolf was seeing, between her own mind-altering magic and whatever it was that Maus had unleashed upon it.
Then she realized - whatever would make this creature tuck its tail and drop low to the frozen ground...she didn't even want to know.
rejam
Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2026 1:47 am
xxJuliette06
He probably should have, but he shied away from it, still unwilling to do what might only provoke it, or even make it too oblivious to its own pain and danger to be cautious.
He resorted to that classic of the makeshift weapon genre instead, stooping down to pick up the nearest thing to a brick that was on hand - a somewhat hefty rock - and throw it. When all else fails: throw something heavy. The wolf, again, flickered, stumbling on unsteady paws.
"Think whatever you're doing is more good than whatever I did," he answered, nimbly moving in a way that tried not to make it too obvious that he was trying to get between her and it - and without blocking her metal petals, or whatever they were - just in case it was gathering itself for a last lunge.
He was momentarily aware of a little light at the edge of his vision, but now was not the time to drop everything and try to catch that little thing. It seemed to know exactly when to manifest to avoid being seized in his hands - if that was even possible - and where it went between times he could not say.
Kua'kua pursed her lips slightly as the rock whacked onto the wolf and then clattered - through - the wolf. For sure it was no longer completely corporeal, and Kua'kua was going to take that as a good sign. That had to mean it was losing strength.
She hoped.
"Petal Perfume!" Kua'kua shouted, once again side-stepping Maus; was he getting in the way on purpose? Maybe he just didn't have much experience in battle, even though his uniform had clearly been updated. Another swirl of hellebore petals whirled to life, wrapping themselves around the wolf, mixing with the ice and the snow and with one final painful, broken howl, it turned and fled and, finally, fully disappeared in one last whirl of snow and ice. Kua'kua remained still for a moment, straining to hear - she was almost positive that she heard another faint cry somewhere else in the city, but it faded, and Kua'kua looked to Maus.
"Thank you," Kua'kua said with a breathless little smile, the words escaping her along with a breath that appeared in a cloud in front of her. "You look--different." She thought the 'good differen't went without saying, so she didn't say it, unaware that it might not come off that way, but before she could say anything further, Kua'kua's attention found the small bundle of... "Are those mushrooms?" Kua'kua asked, curiosity brightening her expression as she looked back to Maus. "Where did you find that?"
rejam
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2026 7:59 pm
Juliette06
He had been on the brink of deflecting the thank you with something airy and self-deprecating, when he was prevented from having to think of such a thing by her question.
He looked down at what passed for his weapon, thinking rather grimly that it wasn't much of a weapon at all. He held it out towards her, in case she wanted a closer inspection.
"I didn't. The Code - or the Cauldron - or something - puts them into our hands. Some people get a staff or a whip and I got a bag of pizza toppings." He paused. "They're not real," he added, perhaps unnecessarily, and then he laughed. "I mean, they're all sort of fake in a way, but this one is more fake than others - less real than your flowers, less real than a sword without an edge. Isn't it weird, to get handed a weapon by God or whatever and it's something pretending to be real-"
The syllable cut off short as if he had connected two mental dots suddenly, and he hesitated, giving the fake mushrooms a strange, off-kilter look, which broke off into his usual habitual smile: boyish, lopsided, easy. "Maybe I should choose to think it says something positive to my character that I got something so unweaponlike."
"I see," Kua'kua said, golden eyes shimmering with interest as she tilted her head to study the bag more intently. She knew Knights worked - differently - than Senshi, but her contact with them had been fairly limited on her homeworld, so she knew next to nothing beyond that fact.
But it was probably rude to stare so curiously at someone else's...if not a weapon, magical...source. Whatever it was. Kua'kua blushed lightly, a darker shade of green rushing to her cheeks, and returned her attention to the man who held the bag out to her.
"I believe it does," she said with a little nod. "It is certainly better than summoning a cloud of poison that can just as easily harm one's friends as one's enemies." Kua'kua sighed and shook her head. "Which, for the record, are not 'real' either. I cannot show you without hurting you, but they are not physical. For a long time I was somewhat sure that they did nothing at all, because--"
Because the evil she fought on her homeworld certainly couldn't be defeated by it. She cut herself off, swallowed, and refocused.
"I believe also," she said, "speaking of poison, that this bag of yours is a 'real weapon', in some way, though I am sure it says something good about you either way. I believe it did impact that creature. Perhaps you simply need to practice with it to see its full range of uses."
rejam
Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 5:16 pm
Juliette06
"Probably," he agreed, withdrawing it and trying to find something to say. He had a little habitual movement here - recognized only by a few, and most of them annoyed to see it - of smoothing the corner of his mustache with his thumb, the tell of his looking for the right words. In this particular situation it was difficult. He had caught that little hitch and unfinished sentence, and although he could only speculate as to its meaning, his speculation was at least well-informed. He never knew how to be useful when confronted by other people's grief, and even if he was wrong this time, some of these alien folks - and some senshi, too - seemed to have it hanging off of every thought they had. And no wonder.
"I won't belabor it," he said at last, with a smile that, at least, was one of unimpeachable sincerity. "But I think it might say something positive to your character that you were given a power you had to be careful to wield. Not something you'd expect to see put into reckless hands that don't give a s**t about who they're hurting." He lifted one of his own, as he said this, as if to indicate something about those hands of his. "Anyway. It was good to see you again," he said. "It's better not to have to run into a fight, but probably more fun to do that with a friend than a stranger."
