The Lilypads (16) : You can find them in lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and waterways throughout Destiny City. Giant lilypads--some large enough to support the weight of a person--appear overnight. You can try, if you want. It's become a local trend, and pictures are all over social media--of people looking for the largest lilypads, or the smallest ones they can stand on. You'd think the unnatural bubbling around the lilypads would be enough of a sign not to mess with them, but sometimes people need to learn the hard way. Beneath the lilypads lurk strange frog-like creatures that regard nearly everything as prey. The largest of them are roughly the size and shape of a bean bag chair, but they can be as small as a fist. Their broad heads are crowned with lilypads that serve as natural camouflage, allowing them to hide among the floating vegetation until they strike. They move with startling speed and can launch themselves impressive distances with powerful kicks. Long, whip-like tongues lash out to snatch prey, while thick mucus-like saliva can cling to skin, clothing, and even immobilize unfortunate victims. Their skin carries a toxic coating that can cause irritation on contact. The creatures announce themselves with a deep croak that sounds uncannily like a large bell being rung just by your ears. Unfortunately, for anyone that was respecting nature, these strange creatures are aggressive and will also attack without provocation, often attempting to drive even innocent bystanders away from the water's edge. However, if sufficiently threatened, they may retreat into the water. Once submerged, they become impossible to track.
Mason was standing in a crowd of people, squinting over the expanse of the reservoir. He'd thought it was strange that hardly anybody was actually in the water as he approached, but now - he understood.
There was a huge, huge, huge, huge, giant, massive, big and very large lilypad, floating right where most of the action tended to happen. There were other, smaller lilypads clustered around it. It all looked perfectly serene, except that a kid was crying and people were whispering and looking around furtively for some kind of an explanation.
"There's nobody out there, right?" Mason asked a nearby bystander, who shook their head. "Good," Mason said, pressing his mouth into a thin line. He was glad nobody was either getting brave or getting stupid; word was starting to spread that these lilypads might not be altogether natural. He didn't know what the civilians thought was happening, but Mason had a sinking feeling that whatever it was, it was magical in nature, which meant it was his problem - and his responsibility to keep everyone safe.
"Okay guys," Mason said, shrugging through the crowd of people to get to the front of the gathered group. "I think we can all agree that it's probably not safe to swim here tonight. So if you guys could head on home, I'll call the..." Mason floundered a moment, "the, uh, park ranger." Park ranger? Did they handle mysterious magical miscreants? Sure, why not. Go with park ranger. "And I'll make sure this gets taken care of. Thanks, everybody, sorry. Yeah, I know, it stinks. Sorry, thanks."
The thing about speaking with authority and giving folks a direct action to accomplish? It tended to - work. Maybe that was Mason's natural charm, or maybe they were all just looking for someone to let them off the hook of being the one who fixed it, but whatever the reason, the civilians began to trickle out of the reservoir area and back to their homes (or, maybe, to a water source that didn't have demons lurking at the bottom of it).
Blarney waited a long few minutes, did a lap around to make sure he was alone, and then he powered up, swirling his shillelagh loosely next to him. He wasn't quite sure what good his wall would do him in this particular instance, but his stick? His stick could definitely make contact with whatever freaky creature was waiting to gobble him or some poor civilian up whole.
Blarney returned to the water's edge and pulled his boots off, setting them a good distance from the water. There would be no helping the rest of his outfit - he was going to get absolutely soaked for sure - but at least he could keep his boots dry. On second thought, he also set his flower-crown on top of his boots. It was too pretty to risk getting eaten by demonic amphibians.
Blarney sighed to himself and looked back at the water. "Okay," he said, rousing himself. He had a lot on his mind - he needed to do his part for trying to get the brigade together; he needed to keep on Mads to find her ring; he needed to do so many things.
It almost made the task in front of him: beating the heck out of whatever lived under those lilypads - seem pleasantly simple by comparison.
"Okay, let's go," he said to himself, then cautiously began to wade into the water.
Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2026 8:23 pm
Juliette06
Fontainebleau had had a busy spring semester, and hadn't had much in the way of time to do anything as a page. But now, summer stretched ahead of her, only filled with part time summer work, which meant continuing to work as an usher at the local theaters, so mostly evening work.
So when she'd received a message from Green Chapel to go on a patrol together, it had sounded like a great idea. Green Chapel apparently needed a chance to stretch her legs, too, as the younger page had just gotten into college. She hadn't specified which college, or which department, and the older girl knew there was no promise she'd even recognize the younger girl as a civilian, but, somewhere, deep in her heart, the Venusian knight hoped she'd see the Earth knight somewhere on campus, and maybe they could catch lunch or something together. Sure, it was a very girly fantasy, but it'd be nice to have an actual girl friend Fontainebleau could hang with on campus, since the rest of her friends were back in Fresno, California.
The one thing Fontainebleau could say about her page uniform was that she was so glad that the weather didn't seem to impact her when she was Powered up. Sure, the heavy clothing was nice when the weather took a turn for the cold and bitter, but it would normally be a recipe for utter misery in the summer. Oh, and her hair was up and out of the way. That was also a big plus when doing any kind of exercise.
Like jogging out to the reservoir to maybe patrol somewhere where they would, if they were lucky, be mostly unobserved during daylight hours. At least it was a weekday. That had to count for something, right?
Nope. Clearly, too much to hope for, the Venusian page realized as she reached the parking lot. Okay, the parking lot wasn't full, but the bike racks were definitely crammed with bikes.
It turned out there was a second advantage to her attire. A good handful of people had jokingly asked if she was going to a Renn Faire, and complimented her on how accurate her outfit looked, really, guuurrrlll, you look stunning. According to Green Chapel, not everybody got that lucky, and, if she ever got armor, and carried around a more serious-looking weapon, that good will might utterly vanish, but, for now, given how people on campus talked about the "terrorist" activities of people she was starting to suspect were the Order senshi, Fontainebleau was going to take advantage of the fact that she didn't immediately look like the supposed terrorists.
She found the younger page waiting for her behind the snack shack, and waved, shouldering her unstrung shortbow. "Hey--" she started to call out as she waved, before being interrupted by some dude shouting at the huge crowd around the edge of the reservoir to disperse, the park rangers would sort it out.
She cocked her head curiously, even as Green Chapel noticed her, and made her way over. "Any idea what's going on over there?" she asked curiously.
Huh. The guy was gone. But there was another guy, shucking his boots and removing a floral crown to go into the reservoir, which was covered in...lilypads...the size of boulders...what? But Green Chapel clearly knew what was going on.
Green Chapel had done it. Applied to and gotten into college. Destiny City University, that was, in the Music department. Sure, some part of her wished she could do Folklore instead, but she could always take folklore courses as electives. It would have to do.
It had been a long and busy spring semester, with finishing up high school and getting into college, and, frankly, the page needed some time to not worry about the mundane requirements of the academic life, much as she liked school. It was just...she needed some time to be herself, if that made any sense, without worrying about what someone else needed her to be. Which was, oddly, where being a knight came in. Sure, people in need probably expected her to come to the rescue, and needed her to fight the forces of Chaos, but, so far, the people around her seemed very understanding, and willing to let her find her own feet as a knight. Which was kinda nice.
What was also nice for getting in more time as a knight was the fact that her parents were out of the country right now. They had confirmed that Green Chapel had a hitherto unknown cousin living in Japan who'd been orphaned several months ago, and was living in difficult circumstances that precipitated her parents taking the opportunity that the very next Japanese jazz festival presented, and both of them flying out to Japan to try to retrieve and adopt her cousin. Which had made the first part of the summer even more chaotic, with agency officials coming to inspect their house, to confirm that it would be an appropriate home for a child being adopted from Japan to the US. The cousin in question was apparently 15 years old, still young enough to be adopted, though that was also apparently a narrowing window.
In a way, it was kind of exciting, just as much as it was anxiety-inducing. Green Chapel had a new cousin who wasn't that much younger than her, whose introduction would be "Hi, here's your new baby sister, be nice to each other, ok." Not a great introduction, but she already sometimes shared her parents with her other two cousins who lived in Destiny City, and the idea of having an even slightly younger sister was kind of appealing, in its own way, as her parents had realized, when they were trying for a second child, that they couldn't have any more kids, and she would be an only child. Sure, her cousins had made sure she never felt lonely, and, sure, the new sister would be coming in as the biological child was preparing to leave the nest, but, still. Exciting. She hoped the other girl was nice, and would like how she and her cousins and her aunt had dolled up the spare bedroom.
As for college...she wasn't totally sure, but Green Chapel strongly suspected Fontainebleau was already in college, but which college, and which department, she wasn't sure. Regardless, it was nice to be starting to gather a little circle of knight friends, who didn't judge Green Chapel for being shy. Thus, thinking of the Venusian, she had suggested they go on patrol together, and what less populated spot than the hiking trails around the reservoir on a weekday?
Evidently, other people had had similar ideas, and the bike racks were chock full of bikes. What also didn't help was that her outfit was more difficult to mistake for a Renn Faire costume than Fontainebleau's outfit was, even if not very much moreso. As a result, she'd sequestered herself in the shadow of the snack shack, watching for the distinctive oranges and golds in anachronistic costume to appear, trying to ignore the crowds.
At long last, she spotted the other girl, and started to wave, just as a familiar voice called out for people to move along, cutting off her friend's greeting. Turning around as her friend approached, the Earth page spotted another friend--Mason--trying to disperse people. Mason, an Earth squire. Talking about getting the park rangers to deal with the mysterious, oversized lilypads filling the reservoir. Yeah. No. Those weren't ordinary lilypads, at those sizes, and Mason--Blarney of Earth--would be mad if he was getting the park rangers. So he was obviously lying about that, albeit an understandable lie, as people started dispersing.
"Yeah, I do. And I think we should be prepared for trouble," she said, as Mason returned from wherever he'd run off to as Blarney. She pulled her holly twig from where she'd tucked it into her belt, and led the way toward the Earth squire.
"Hey! Blarney! Could you use some help out there?" she called out, leading Fontainebleau to the water's edge. He probably did. After all, it was Starfest in Destiny City, and the holidays seemed to bring out all the magical crazy the city could dish out.
Blarney turned his head just before her voice rang out - he'd just noticed the two auras at the edge of his consciousness. Had they been there the whole time? Surely not.
But boy was he glad to see them, regardless - especially because, oh hey, he knew that one! Beaming, Blarney quickly high-tailed it out of the water and darted over to the pair of them, not even bothering to put his shoes back on.
"Hey! Green Chapel!" Blarney said, pleased beyond all measure to see the Page again. They'd run into each other a couple of times, but any time a familiar face showed up, Blarney was happy about it, because that meant that face was, yanno, still alive. "And, uh," he added, looking to the sunset-toned page nearby, "sorry, I don't think we've met. I'm Blarney, Squire of Earth," he said, giving a broad smile to the other Page. "You're...a Venus Knight, right?" he said, squinting at her outfit for a moment. "That's cool, I haven't met anybody from Venus yet! I mean, not from from. You know what I mean." Blarney blushed faintly and shook his head, then glanced back at the lilypad.
Was there a faint light hovering over it, a little glowing speck? Blarney frowned, squinted, blinked, and the thing was gone.
Weird.
"I think I can probably use all the help I can get," he said, returning his attention to the pair of them. "But no matter what, you two need to keep yourselves safe, okay? If stuff goes sideways, just worry about getting the heck out of dodge. Can you two promise me that, please?" Blarney looked between them, eyes wide and anxious and absolutely genuine. "Don't worry about me, if that does happen, okay? Please promise me that you'll worry about getting yourselves to safety first."
elfstar89
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2026 9:42 am
Fontainebleau clicked her heels together and swept off her hat in an elaborate bow, barely containing a smile at the cheesiness of the gesture, which was also just plain fun for her. "Pleasure to meet another knight! Yup, I'm a Venusian knight, Fontainebleau, Page of Venus, at your service," she replied cheerfully.
"So, what kinda situation do you think we've got?" This seemed like the wind up to a battle, and she spared a glance at her bow. It was still functionally pretty useless. But a literal butt-kicking, or, failing that, the good old chancla, were still on the table. "I can promise to run if things look unwinnable, but it seems to me you should make the same promise, sir," she added pleasantly. After all, his stick with a rock attached, while much meatier than her old, unstrung bow, or Green Chapel's little holly twig, didn't look like a professional tool of carnage. Plus, he was a squire, right? So he was a bit farther along than the girls, but not yet at full strength. He might be more durable than the girls at this stage, with more tricks up his sleeve, but something terminal happening to him wasn't on the table, either. Besides, he probably had loved ones waiting for him at home.
"So, we have a deal before we have to deal with whatever it is that's in the reservoir?"
Green Chapel watched the introduction, and noted that it did seem that Fontainebleau liked these kinds of dramatics. She idly wondered if Fontainebleau was in a college theater department. Destiny City University wasn't the only possible candidate, but, given Fontainebleau's slight accent that sounded a little like she might be from the Latino community in Los Angeles, Destiny City University seemed the most likely candidate for an out-of-state theater kid to choose, though why she'd be in Destiny City than back in California was anybody's guess...oh, wait, no, it wasn't, Fontainebleau was a knight, and she hadn't heard of credible supernatural stuff happening outside of Destiny City. So Fontainebleau had followed some kind of internal urging to come join the fight while going to college. And, while Theater wasn't the same department as Music, they were certainly adjacent departments, which raised the odds that she'd see Fontainebleau again as a student in the fall. Which was honestly really nice, it would be great to already have friends when she got to college.
Which, yes, already included Mason and Madeline. Still. More friends was a good thing.
Turning her attention back to the conversation, Fontainebleau was already asking the question Green Chapel herself wanted to ask. Would Blarney keep himself safe, too? Sure, he was already a squire, but he shouldn't be excluding himself from that arrangement, either.
"Blarney, Edam would kill us if something happened to you," she added, gently reminding the squire of just how terrifying his twin could be if something happened to her twin. "Also, I don't think it would be at all fair of us to run away and leave you behind when you've already implicitly promised to not run away and leave us behind, either." After all, fair play was fair play, she mused to herself as she glanced at the lilypads.
The reservoir didn't usually grow lilypads, because they weren't a native species. Plus, Starfest had already begun. Ergo, whatever this was, it was probably supernatural, even if it wasn't a youma. On top of that, she remembered the hyperallergenic possibly alien poinsettia that had been used to decorate the city center, which had caused the Earth page to deface public property in the middle of the night to protect the wider populace, and to meet Fontainebleau, and educate Fontainebleau in the ways of knighthood, at least as far as she knew what was going on.
The lilypads might be here on their own, but they might not be, and, either way, they needed to go. She wasn't as much of a fighter as Fontainebleau...but she was a swimmer strong enough to compete in school competitions.
The page started shedding her boots. "If you want, I can act as a distraction or a scout or something; just place me in the water, you know how well I can swim, Blarney." After all, Blarney had been on the cheerleading squad, he'd been present at her swim meets, he'd seen her swim. Even if Green Chapel couldn't fight, she'd still be the best one to have in the water, because she was capable of handling herself in the water.
Blarney couldn't help the light blush that crossed his cheeks as Green Chapel reminded him of how they had met, so long ago it felt like it had been another lifetime, happened to another person. Khaz was...Khaz was still a bruise on his heart, but not a deep, oozing scab anymore. A scar.
But that wasn't Green Chapel's fault or problem - and they were right, Edam would make short work of anyone she blamed for anything that happened to Blarney. And that wasn't fair to them, honestly...
"Deal," Blarney said, even though he didn't have the slightest intention of leaving the girls behind in that situation. "And it's nice to meet you, Fontainebleau," he added, smile widening for a moment - he liked her energy. He turned his attention back to the lilypad and pressed his lips together, resting his hands on his hips as he considered. "As far as this thing goes...I'm not sure. Last year there was a freaking sea monster in this lake," he said with a short, dry laugh. "So maybe before we offer anybody else up as a distraction or bait..." Blarney cast around, eyes finally landing on a decently large rock - something that could make a big splash and get its attention - if there was anything's attention to get, anyway.
Blarney picked up the rock and heaved it, as far as he could throw it. He watched it arc through the air and land with a large splash; he watched carefully, and raised his eyebrows as he caught sight of further ripples, a very specific sort of disturbance - way too big to be caused by your average fish or underwater creature.
"Yeah, there's something out there," Blarney sighed, "and now it knows we're here, if it didn't already." Blarney sighed and considered, glancing back briefly at the girls to remind himself of the weapons they possessed: a tiny holly sprig and what might someday become a functional bow. Not great against a water-dwelling whatever it was.
"Job one is get eyes on it," he decided. "I wonder if it can't come ashore or if it just doesn't like to." He sighed. He was a little reluctant to include them in the plan, but they were right - if he got dead, nobody would be served. "Let's all of us swim out there. I have defensive magic that can protect us from a head-long attack...I think," he said, frowning faintly as he considered: would his wall work underwater? Would it just float away, if it couldn't reach the ground? Blarney had no idea. "We might be able to herd it to shallower depths," he continued, "so we can at least stand up and not, y'know, drown." Blarney smiled wryly.
"But this is just recon for the moment, to see what we're even dealing with, okay? Unless it turns out to be a guppy or a friendly mermaid - which I doubt - we just need to see what we're fighting, then get back to shore ASAP to figure out a plan of attack." And hope it didn't follow them back.
elfstar89
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2026 10:53 am
Green Chapel watched the water ripple thoughtfully after the rock was thrown. Blarney was right, too big for one of the ordinary fish that swam the reservoir, which were often small enough that an awful lot of the fish caught in the reservoir were thrown back in, being below the legal limit. Whatever it was that had made the ripple was at least ten times the legal minimum size, which was probably not possible, or the local fishermen would have a story about a fish that big. Plus, oddly enough, that ripple was almost directly underneath the foreign lilypads.
That said, some of the lilypads did look large enough to walk on, if one sprinted fast enough...
"I know you said you didn't want us to be in danger, Blarney, but please let me try my idea. I don't think I'm going to be much good in a fight until I make squire, but, if something goes wrong, I'm not helpless in the water." She took a deep breath. "I want to try running over the top of the lilypads, to see if that lures it above the water long enough for you both to take a look and formulate a strategy. If I land in the water, I should be able to get back to shore on my own pretty safely. Plus, if it gives chase, we can see how far it's willing to go," she argued. Green Chapel tried to avoid looking at her twig. Edam had a slingshot, and Fontainebleau had the remains of a bow, both of which were more than a twig.
That said, the slingshot and the bow were both more than her cousins had gotten. Khaz said he had shielding magic, and Yasmeen demonstrably had mood-altering magic, but neither of them had anything else at their disposal. Consequently, they both indicated having to get creative in a fight. Green Chapel was going to have to be creative to pull her own weight in this fight.
And that meant fighting smarter, until she had something more than a twig to rely on.
Fontainebleau considered what Green Chapel was saying. "Blarney, I think she's right. If she's a good swimmer, that's a good thing," she added, eyeballing the spot where the ripples had been. The university student was no better than an average swimmer, having mostly taken classes at the local public swimming pool each summer when she was a kid, until she was considered competent enough to not drown. If Green Chapel was even better than that, that was an asset in these circumstances. Even if the Venusian could successfully twinkle-toes her way across the lilypads without falling in, if something went sideways, well, swimming wasn't what Fontainebleau was physically best at. She might very well get eaten.
"If you can lure it close enough to shore, we could probably beat it up," she said thoughtfully, tapping the ground with her boots. Which looked a little more substantial than theirs, probably due to being inspired by a culture with more advanced cobbling techniques. They might not be able to pull off the whole "chancla" routine as well as she could. Not that Blarney needed to, with that big stick of his, seriously, it looked like a small tree branch wrapped around a large-ish rock. He could probably do more damage with his stick than she could with her boots. That said, kicking was also an option.
Though, what if it wouldn't head into the shallows? They'd have to go back to the drawing board with that one.
"Got any ideas of where to try to bonk it on the head if it won't go into the shallows? There's no guarantee it will follow our girl into the shallows, and I don't know this reservoir all that well," she admitted, after giving Green Chapel a quick side-arm hug. It was the curse of being in an unfamiliar city in an unfamiliar state. The entire landscape was unfamiliar, as were a lot of the locals and their local ways. Also, Green Chapel seemed to be a bit shyer, unless she had something to fight for, and Fontainebleau was not about to leave her girl's brave offer hanging like that.
