|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 8:05 pm
Quote: 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. Spending time with Alex was quickly becoming something that Halia looked forward to. He was charming, funny, and admittedly a bit of a dork. But he also only saw her as her. He didn't know about her shitty past, didn't know about the magical cosmic war of good and evil she was part of, he just knew Halia, and somehow that made it so much more appealing to get to know him and spend time with him. It wasn't that she didn't like that her friends knew everything, but there was no way the twins didn't have their opinions of her colored by her identity as Aruna and by her experience as a senshi. Alex? He just knew her as the girl from the bookstore. And that was refreshing. Walking beside him, she kept up easily with his longer strides, enjoying the comfortable silence. Their hands occasionally brushed here and there, but she wasn't bold enough to take hold of his hand. She wasn't that bold yet, at least. Though she did touch his arm lightly before walking over to the side of the path, crouching down to retrieve something that was glimmering. Grinning, she turned and held up two little star charms that were stuck together. "Look what someone dropped!"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2026 9:13 pm
Alex knew himself well enough to know that he had a pattern, when it came to relationships: he tended to fall hard, fall fast, and usually, fall alone. He usually ended up crash-landing in Heartbreak City, wondering where the person he'd jumped with had flown off to. His sister called him a 'serial monogamist'. Alex had thrown a shoe at her the first time she said it, because it sounded like a crime, and also because there wasn't anything wrong with monogamy. Was it 'boring'? Maybe. Was it 'vanilla'? Maybe. But it could also be fulfilling, and Alex had to believe, comforting to have one person who was as crazy about you as you were about them. It sure seemed like Halia liked him as much as he liked her. Then again, it always seemed that way to him - right up until it didn't. But until it didn't - until the crash-landing - it felt so good. It felt so exciting, so fun, the thrill of hands brushing together, the thrill of possibility. He loved this part of it. So he was already smiling when Halia darted away from him. It barely had time to flicker before she was turning back at him, a childlike sort of delight clear across her face that made Alex's heart do a funny little pang. She was so pretty it was stupid. "Their loss is our gain," Alex said, joining her to study the little charms. They were all over the place during StarFest, to the point where Alex's eyes sort of skipped over them - so it was refreshing for him to see it as Halia did: a delightful, whimsical little gift from the universe. "Or maybe they left it here for us on purpose," Alex added with a grin. "As a special little StarFest present, like a pay-it-forward thing."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2026 10:43 pm
Making her way back to his side, Halia handed one of the charms over to Alex with a sunny smile. "A gift from the universe, maybe." She slipped the matching charm into her bag, planning to fasten it onto her keys later. She was so completely focused on Alex and the smile he brought to her face that she missed the hints of something being amiss around them, the little things that had she been not distracted, she would have remembered from the year before "I'm really glad we did this. I really enjoy spending time with you." It was still new, still unlabeled specifically, but whatever they were becoming was quickly something she found herself liking and wanting more of. Which frankly made her anxiety go through the roof. There were so many things to think about and take into consideration, so many ways things could go wrong. She was risking a lot, in her eyes, by going out so casually with someone that could either be unaware of the cosmic war, or worse, could be an enemy. Not that she thought Alex could ever be the sort of person to willingly work for the Negaverse, but she had seen stranger things. Walking beside him, her hand brushed against his again as they turned down a side street. A shortcut she had used plenty of times, albeit as Aruna. They seemed to be the only people on the street, and it would have given it an almost intimate atmosphere if it weren't for the sound that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Freezing, Halia prayed she didn't just hear what she thought she did behind them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2026 6:55 am
Alex grinned, stupidly pleased that they had a matching set of these dumb little things. He slid his wallet out of his pocket and tucked the charm inside, knowing it could easily fall out of his pocket otherwise, and put the wallet back away. As he glanced around the alley they found themselves in, Alex briefly wondered if now was the moment to-- "Was that a chicken?" Alex asked, pulling up short. Destiny City was - you know, a city. There were farms within driving distance, but it wasn't like there was a farmer's market or something going on. There was no reason for a loud, pissed-off bawwwwwk to reach their ears. "That had to be someone just - screwing around, right?" Alex asked, brow knit in confusion. God knew he was getting older - maybe it was some new chicken craze from TikTok. But then - why had it set his heart thumping erratically in his chest? "C'mon, let's--let's go." Too spooked to think anything of it, Alex took her hand and wound his fingers through hers, in order to tug her further down the alley - what he thought was away from the noise.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2026 7:16 am
Knowing Alex heard the sound too did not set Halia at ease. As his fingers laced with hers, she squeezed his hand hard, alarm evident on her face. If they were lucky, they'd be able to just exit the side street and all would be well. They'd blend into whatever throng of people was around and they'd be safe. Which was a great plan, except she suddenly found herself staring at a wall. The "shortcut" had in fact been something she only used as Aruna, vaulting easily over the wall while powered. "This is bad. This is very, very bad...." Instinctively, she tried to tug Alex a little behind her as she turned to face the direction they came from. A horrid scraping sound met her ears and her free hand slipped into her pocket, curling around her henshin pen. Just in case.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2026 7:20 am
Alex blinked, frowned at the wall. He'd just been following Halia. If Halia were pretty much anyone else, any of the other girls Alex had dated, he would have suspected her of wanting a little bit of private-public space to get hot-n-heavy in, but Halia was Halia, and also, what was that sound? "Halia?" Alex asked, a frown on his face as he looked down the alley and back to his - well, not girlfriend, but his - something. She looked...freaked, but not confused, which just made Alex even more confused. Why wasn't she confused? "What's going on?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2026 7:28 am
"I'm going to need to ask you to trust me, okay?" She didn't look at him, eyes too focused on the path they'd come from. Her entire body was tense, as if she was just waiting for something. And then it came into view. A great, hulking thing. The smell of sulfur, the vague shape of a chicken, the god awful sound. It came towards the pair slowly, almost as if stalking prey. Halia tightened her grip on Alex's hand, eyes not leaving the creature for a second. "s**t...." The rare swear left her lips and she glanced up at Alex before looking back at the creature. "I don't think there's enough room to run past it without it hurting you...." Because truthfully, she wasn't worried about herself. Just him. She had the advantage of magic, after all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2026 8:16 pm
Alex - gaped. His eyes were trying to tell his brain what they were seeing, but it was like when Google came back with 'no results'. There was nothing, anywhere, in all of Alex's entire lived experience, that could relate to what was currently before him. It was...it was a chicken. That was the closest thing he could think of, the thing the sound made him think of, but he'd never seen a chicken that looked like that, and he'd gotten briefly very into the concept of having a rooftop coop and had done a surprising amount of research into poultry as a concept. He'd even learned about Brahma chickens and Jersey Giant chickens that could weigh up to fifteen pounds. Fifteen pounds! Of chicken! And next to this thing, a Jersey Giant chicken would have looked like a tiny baby chick. Halia was saying something. He couldn't quite hear her, his ears were ringing, that thing was squawking and it smelled and Alex choked on it--and tightened his grip on Halia's hand. She was saying something. Focus on her voice. Focus. "You...know what that thing is?" Alex hissed, finally noticing that he seemed to be alone on Confusion Island, that Halia's expression had skipped right over alarm and gone straight to calculating, planning. Alex was nowhere near planning. He was, in fact, slowly approaching full-on panic. "Hali? What's--what's happening?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2026 8:25 pm
A thousand witty things crossed her mind that she could say. Absolutely none of them felt appropriate given the current very real danger they were in. Or rather that Alex was in. As the chicken made it's way closer, Halia made a decision. "Alex, you trust me right?" She didn't look at him as she spoke, eyes glued to the monster before her. "I'll explain everything later, but right now, I'm going to need you to trust me. And when I say run, you need to run."Without another word, she let go of his hand, took her henshin pen out, and transformed. A flurry of skirts and ribbon and belts, soft glowing lines on her skin, and an entirely different demeanor, Aruna stood before him in place of Halia. "One year. All I'm asking for is one single year that StarFest doesn't saddle me with weird crap. But no. You just had to make a grand reappearance." Glaring at the chicken monster, she slammed her heeled boot into the ground. "Supreme Slide!!!" A torrent of rocks and mud and debris rushed down onto the creature, burying it beneath. Reaching back, she grabbed Alex's hand and looked up at him, face full of determination as she tugged at him to follow. "Run! Now!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
