Poultrygeist (10) : 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.
Note: If you choose to encounter one of these bird-like creatures, your character will recognize they are not youma. It is impossible to tell if it is a single entity or if there are many. The bird does not seem to understand or care to listen to human words. It will always disappear in a malodorous plume of smoke and leave nothing but a foul odor and a clutch of empty, broken eggs behind. This RP can be used as a battle requirement as long as there are two powered characters involved; you must be interacting with another player’s powered character. This does not count as the one youma battle per stage for growth. This can only be used as a battle requirement once per character, but there is no limitation for how many times a player can use this prompt.
The smell bothered her less than she cared to admit—weird smells were part of her day job, working in a lab and all. Ekstrom still wrinkled her nose as the odor was blown her way by an untimely breeze, and she glanced toward it and considered for just a moment before adjusting her trajectory and starting to walk in the smell's general direction. "Could just be lost eggs from an egg hunt or something," she murmured to herself, though that wasn't super likely considering how long it'd been since that holiday.
Beyond the smell, though, she sensed an Order signature in the same general direction before long, and her curiosity shifted from the smell to whoever that was. Her trajectory shifted again, only slightly, though the closer she got to the owner of the signature the stronger the scent of sulfur became. Any excuse, really, to try and distract her from the source of the smell, though as she went she realized that it was getting...stronger? Which was unfortunate, but finding a potential ally, in her opinion, was more than worth it.
Along the way, something glinted under a park light that caught her eye. Her curiosity getting the better of her, as it often did, pulled her only slightly off her set path, to the bench where a cute little orange ice cream charm sat quietly, all by its lonesome. She picked it up and glanced around, wondering if there was even the slightest chance of the owner still being around.
There was no one else, at least not in her immediate line of sight.
"Finders keepers I guess," she said, her tone somewhere between resigned and delighted. The charm was very cute, and she took an extra second to admire it before sending it off to her subspace and getting back on track.
"Hey!" she called before long, to the squire now within her sights. She ignored the sudden onset of dread as a loud CRUNCH sounded beneath her boot. The feeling lingered for only a moment before a guttural crow ripped through the otherwise peaceful night air. It sounded wrong—wet, ragged, too deep—and the smile fell from her face.
lLP
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2026 1:37 am
itspao_
Thrymheir hadn't honestly thought about anything that she could remember from her past spent in the negaverse. Well, that was until this damn chicken thing showed up again.
She'd seen the eggs and tried to be careful not to disturb them but it seemed she was met with a knight who, perhaps wasn't aware of how terrible this chicken smelt. There was an attempt not to gag for a moment as the stench worsened.
She turned to respond but was cut off when the haunt appeared in it's menacingly ways and caused the squire to let out a sigh. She was trying not to be annoyed but it made things difficult to learn when you had some weird chicken chasing you.
"Watch out!" She called as she took her whip and tried to aim for the chicken's feet. It was probably not very effective since it was pretty much just a fiber optic whip but something was better than nothing right???
Granted she thought there was more she could do but wasn't really sure how to trigger it yet, she'd not had to deal with any sort of magic when she was in a negaverse.
Ekstrom's scream as she saw what was now charging straight at her mixed in with the sound of the zombie chicken creature's shrieking. It took a second for the squire's warning to register, but she certainly didn't need to be told twice to get out of its way. She dove to the side just in time, and it sped past her.
"What is it?!" she cried out while rushing to get to her feet, all the while trying to get a hold of herself. Now was not the time to get all freaked out and scared no matter how easy that was going to be since that was her default when it came to anything even remotely related to zombies. She could handle a violence and gore and other equally unpleasant things, but the undead, or even undead-adjacent like whatever the hell this thing was, were a firm no-go for her.
She brandished her shield, holding it at ready as she watched the creature skid to a stop. It turned, the movement stiff and stilted rather than smooth as she expected it to be given how fast it could run, and stared down the pair of them with bright, burning red eyes.
LP
Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2026 1:25 am
itspao_
Thrym was watching the undead chicken as it charged and snapped her whip at it again trying to ward it off. "It's some chicken ghost a*****e that showed up around this time last year." She was watching as she tried to see if she could channel her magic onto the banshee chicken watching as what appeared to be circuits showing up on the chicken where the whip had hit.
She answered as she moved. "We need to bust the eggs for it to leave if I remember correctly." There was a nose wrinkle, "I could really use this thing not to smell like rotten eggs and sulfur."
There was a pause, "I take it you haven't run into this delightful chicken before." Thrym was being sarcastic when she said delightful and hoped that Esktrom picked up on the sarcasm.
tabSquire: Fiber optic whip The fiber optic whip cannot break skin, but can leave welts, the whip is only 36 inches in length. When Þrymheimr channels her magic the whip lights up and there appears to be a glitch in the matrix where the air lights up with circuits and the target feels as if they have been encased in a thin coating of ice. Slowing their reaction time and making them feel as if they were getting frostbite. Þrymheimr can channel this magic for up to 45 seconds. The target could have lingering side effects from the cold after the spell ends.
"No, I must have missed out," came an equally sarcastic reply. "Eggs?" she asked without skipping a beat, eyes on the undead chicken as it continued to stare them down. She froze, as though not moving might keep it from charging. "Bet if we follow our noses we'll find them," she went on, her grip on her shield tightening slightly as it slowly lowered its head.
"I'll start over th–"
The chicken's mangled, throaty shriek cut her off, and caused her to nearly jump out of her own skin. Thankfully she recovered quickly enough and by sheer force of will pushed her fear down and focused on her magic. Before long her glitchy blue forcefield manifested, and she pushed it out as far as it could go, passing the chicken as it went. Ekstrom watched with some satisfaction as the chicken abruptly stopped in its tracks and shook its head a few times, as if it had been jolted out of focus. She turned to the other knight.
"Quick—you bait, I search? Or I bait and you search?"
Knight Magic When Ekström focuses to channel her magic, upon focusing, a forcefield materializes from her shield and surrounds her, and at her will it can contract or expand to include anyone up to within 20 feet of her.
Individuals are able to touch and/or pass through the forcefield, however enemies that do will feel as though something inside their body is short circuiting, causing very sharp pains to run through their entire body. For a few seconds moving becomes difficult but not impossible.
LP
Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2026 12:12 am
itspao_
"Consider yourself lucky." The squire said, "Well... I guess formally lucky." She grimaced. She could've done without the chicken.
There was a nod when Esktrom asked about eggs. Saying she bet if they followed their noses they could find them, "That's possible, they're totally rotten."
The mercury squire winced when the chicken made a mangled throaty shriek trying to rip them both apart. Ekstrom had managed to stop it with the magic from her sheild.
"I'll bait, I feel like you could smash eggs faster with the shield if you have to. I can use my whip to try and keep it distracted." Thyrm had a second thought as she glanced around, "If I find any eggs while I distract this thing I'll smash those too."
"M'kay," she replied quickly, then looked to see where the chicken was now. Seeing that it was still recovering, she let her magic go—the glitchy blue forcefield dissipating as soon as she did—so she could turn her full attention to finding these eggs. "Be careful, and if you need help just yell."
With that she was off, following her nose wherever the reek of rotting eggs was strongest.
It ultimately led her to a cluster of bushes, which forced her to her hands and knees because there wasn't much she could see while standing properly. It smelled awful, which was as much an encouragement as it was a deterrent. Summoning a flashlight from her subspace, and every last ounce of her will not to throw up from the stench that smacked her in the face as soon as she was on level with the source of it, she swept the beam of light this way and that, a quiet desperation slowly starting to take hold the longer she looked.
LP
Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2026 12:51 am
itspao_
Thymr nodded when Esktrom agreed and she kept her whip in her hand and was working on the whip to make sure it kept the chicken's attention. "You foul feathered fowl come at me!" She taunted the chicken as she snapped the whip towards it.
The fiberoptic wires didn't give quite a nice satisfying crack but it did make a noise which was enough and the chicken when it realized it could move again after the glitchy blue forcefield charged after Thymr.
The squire did her best to dodge the chicken wishing she had like some sort of blanket and treat the creature like a bull. "You good over there?" She called out to Esktrom wondering since the knight had been hunkered in the bush for a bit.
"M'fine!" she called back, and she sounded mostly convincing. It sounded a bit like she was between holding her breath and holding back her puke, but she was fine. She'd dealt with a lot worse at work, though in that setting she usually had some kind of barrier between her nose and the nasty smells.
She crawled on, swinging her light this way and that until she finally saw a small clutch of eggs just barely within arm's reach. "Found it! I found it!" she cried out before immediately straining to reach under the bush. As soon as she thought her closed fist was hovering just above her targets, the knight began to smash the eggs. The gave incredibly satisfying crunch crunch crunch sounds, though it wasn't quite enough to make up for the smell.
LP
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2026 10:13 pm
itspao_
Thrymr glanced towards Ekstrom's direction being distracted for a moment as the chicken made a noise and charged her. She turned and aimed a kick at the bird. "Oh! Good." She said when she heard the words 'found it' from Ekstrom.
"Stupid Bird is getting smarter if it's hiding them now." She grumbled as she smacked it again with her whip, she was hoping the eggs would all be crushed soon so that the bird and smell would go away and she could talk to Ekstrom without having to deal with this smell.
An ear-piercing shriek pierced the night air as Ekstrom, now done playing Hulk Smash with what was hopefully the cluster of eggs she was looking for, crawled out from under the bushes and moved to stand. From the corner of her eye she saw the squire smack the horrid creature as it cried out in agony...and then it vanished in a cloud of noxious fumes.
"Oh, thank god," she muttered as she started to dust the dirt and loose leaves and such off of her while making her way to the squire.
"You okay?" she asked them, a small smile spread across her features despite the worry in her voice as she looked the other over. "Sorry, finding them took longer than I thought. I used to do better on the easter egg hunts as a kid, but it's been years so I'm kinda out of practice." Her smile widened slightly at her own joke, at which point she extended her hand.
"I'm Ekstrom, by the way."
LP
Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2026 7:57 pm
itspao_
Thrymr sighed softly as the creature dispelled, "Oh good." She said putting her whip back into it's subspace pocket. She looked over towards the knight, "I'm fine, how about you?"
There was a pause and a soft chuckle, "Well the feathery fiend got a bit smarter this year, usually these things are kind of out in the open more than they were."
She looked around, "Lets get out of this area before it comes back though... hopefully it doesn't."
When Ekstrom introduced herself the Squire offered her hand, "Þrymheimr" She added, "You can call me Thrymr if you want."
There was a moment, "So.... Ekstrom, got any tips for a new mercury squire?" She asked.
