savetheearth | vermini encounters

Lily had definitely been in favor of the proposed buddy system among their group to try and keep safe. She'd also noted herself that if left to her own devices, she'd be more likely to hover around Winter and Jasmine, with all that had happened. That wasn't entirely fair to everyone there, so there was a part of her that'd tried to fight her instincts a bit there. Everyone needed to be protected, and everyone would be if she had anything to say about it. Shifts to make sure someone was always up. She was all for anything that facilitated that.

...that didn't mean she wasn't going to say no to the added opportunity to drag certain people along with her on occasion. Not that they really needed the incentive, but after so much focus on chasing dead ends half the time, and trying to keep a handle on prescribed schoolwork that she was still expected to cover while she was away, any excuse was a good one on that.

Even if it was just for a walk to clear her head.

...and even if it did end in her trying to bribe Winter with ice cream anyhow. Perhaps unnecessary, but she had felt like it all the same.

Regardless, it's still dangerous, and it seems to suddenly be growing even more so. So, as they walk along the strip, Lily still keeps an eye out for any particular little critters that only they would understand enough to notice. Even as she at least tries to keep the conversation at least relatively light; Lord knows they need it. "So, I've been trying to think of what to get Jasmine for her birthday. It's kind of terrible I haven't figured out what yet, I know..."

Lily had learned well; while Winter had initially made a face at the behavior her special person had clearly learned from her father, she still wouldn't say no to a good ice cream cone, and so she followed Lily down the street, mirroring the action of scanning for vermini idly.

"Well... what kind of things does she like? I don't really know enough to do more than guess," she offers lamely. All of Winter's suggestions would end in the kinds of things she likes, and she knows enough to understand that Jasmine's likes will not match her own. "If I had to, though... maybe a bracelet or something? Something small, but meaningful?"

She shrugs. The two of them were almost certainly on the same wavelength for each other, just not for someone else.

She may have considered it offered lamely, but the suggestion is enough to give Lily a moment of pause and thought. She looks back and smiles a bit. "Something along those lines might not actually be a bad idea. Since she's into the arts so much, she'd probably appreciate something like that, something to signify it and remember the day by, more than something she might use a couple of times... An 18th birthday is a big deal."

She looks back ahead of herself and chuckles a bit darkly. "I sort of wanted to find a way to bake her a cake. I promised I wouldn't again after... well, that incident when we were kids. But maybe she'd appreciate it now... I wond-"

She stops abruptly. Both mid-sentence, and in step. Upon glancing around the side of one building, she thought she saw... something out of the corner of her eye. Something strange enough that she had to stop just to zero in on it, and that alone is cause for a hand to fall to her purse, wherein her transformation device and Precure Seed rests.

"Winter." The name of the other young woman comes out sharp and urgently, as if to say, 'do you see what I see' but without even thinking about it she is instinctively banking on that wavelength being similar enough for her to follow without much else.

She brightens, thinking about it more; that is a fair thought. "Um... actually, that's a good point. I hadn't thought of that." She laughs lightly at the idea of cake, though. "She might... but on some level, that 'promise' is important, too. Maybe if we did something together, or we-"

As Lily stops, Winter brings herself to rest half a step later, shutting up immediately. She doesn't catch what Lily sees, but the emphasis on her name is enough to get her attention, and she gives Raquel a sharp look. She was hoping not to have to worry about things today, but... it seems like that's how the chips fell.

"What did you see?" It's quite a bit more serious.

Actually, that probably isn't half bad an idea. Jasmine probably would appreciate something the both of them could do, for any number of reasons. She might even feel safer if Lily had someone to help her with the cake, regardless of Lily actually being fully capable of it. It's... something she'll have to save for a little later though. Her Seed and pot lid come out, clutched in one hand.

She looks... more than a little disturbed.

"I just... saw a dog."

A beat.

"Walking on two legs."

A dry gulp, and she glances back at Winter.

"Sort of, kind of... human-like legs."

"A... dog?" It's an odd thing to be so spooked- oh. Oh. Her eyes go wide, and she vaguely shakes her head. "No... vermini. We're in trouble." She reaches for Raquel, her heart beating faster. Because, really, this can't get a whole lot worse. "We have to-"

Then she sees it poke its head out again, and she immediately goes silent. Out of fear, of all things - she'd been too new to be involved the first time, and now she's absolutely unsure how to react. This thing is more clearly not natural than almost anything else they've done - the snake statues, the vermedi, all of those were something more grounded than this. But this thing shouldn't exist. And it scares her to her core. Enough that, even as Raquel turns into her Commune, she can't react. She can't wrap her hand around it and do something. She's frozen.

Frozen is exactly the wrong thing to be right now. Her instincts communicate that clearly, but it's not enough to get her moving, and that's a problem. One that looks inclined to bolt toward her at the slightest provocation-

Her breath hitches. "L-Lily...!" It comes out at a squeak, and the beast's head perks up further, looking right at her. She goes perfectly still, and says nothing more, shivering just a little.

In Lily's other hand is her phone, which she's already dialed 911 on. As she begins to speak to the operator, she quickly also takes note of Winter's reaction, and the thing's attention now focusing on them. "...yes, I said a monster. I'm from Locke City, I'm not joking - it can be a robbery if you want, attempted murder, anything. Just send someone out here before this thing hurts someone!"

She keeps her attention divided as evenly as possible between the creature now narrowing its focus upon Winter, and Winter herself. She understands the feeling. She's feeling it right then and there, but... She tries her best to focus. To keep herself steady. Hearing her voice come out like that, seeing her shake... she realizes that if Winter is showing that much fear, she can't afford to.

Once more, Lily's vast practice at hiding her emotions comes to her advantage. In a way she hates it, but she'll damn well use it where she can.

"We're not going to have much of a choice here," Lily murmurs just loud enough for Winter to hear, but she speaks evenly enough. "If that thing wanders off, someone else could get hurt, and if we lose track of it before the police get here, nothing can be done until its too late..."

The infested dog snaps a look to her, briefly, but its focus seems to narrow in on Winter. Assuredly it can smell Lily's fear too, but it can see Winter's. There's enough people around that once it moves this has the chance of becoming very public, even if no one else has caught a glimpse of it yet...

...and then of course, it does move, its longer human-like leg length carrying it quickly in their direction.

"Winter, transform!" Lily shouts, but even she hesitates for a moment. She almost fumbles her device. But with a click and a flash, Cure Moonlight appears in her place - and slides into position in front of Winter, almost instinctively.

The words reach her, but they don't quite click. They have to protect people. They have to stop this thing, before something bad happens, and there's an incident, and it's like Locke City all over again, and...

She can't move. She can't react. Even Raquel's voice trying to get her attention doesn't pierce the shock. Lily's voice gets to her, a moment too slowly, and as she tries to bring her hands around to work the transformation device that's screaming in her ear, she knows she's not going to make it. Her legs aren't moving, her lips are too dry to speak the words, her hands are shaking. Nothing is working right, and it's going to cost them. It's going to cost her.

With agonizing slowness - she drops the Loveads, a twitch reaction catching it a few inches later - she slams everything into place, and she stutters her way through her transformation, the light clearing from her eyes as it's already too late, and the thing's right there, and she doesn't even have the time to reach a hand out, let alone to move - or to drag or push Lily aside. Cure Diamond is completely blindsided, and that means Moonlight's on her own. Worse, it means Moonlight's going to have to protect deadweight for a minute or two while Winter gets her act together. Because whatever she thinks she's doing, this is not what she's supposed to be doing.

Ideally, Moonlight and Diamond should have both been transformed and moving out of the way. They were both fast enough for it. Things... didn't work out that way. As Winter fumbled with her Commune, Moonlight realizes a couple seconds too late that she should have just grabbed her and jumped out of the way. Her instincts screamed at her to move, but for the very first time since receiving that echo... she ignored them.

Those instincts also tell her to lash out, that she had the power to end this within a second. While true, she doesn't want to kill it. This poor creature is just as innocent as either of them - it's the Vermini inside that's pushing it to do this.

So she doesn't listen to those instincts at all.

This is probably the mistake that costs her.

Because Diamond isn't moving, neither does Moonlight. Her right arm goes up to block, but this is very quickly discovered to also be a mistake. Hot, searing pain suddenly meets her, and she discovers something very important - their transformed states could protect them very, very well from blunt instruments of destruction. Blasts of power, drops from great distances, being knocked through walls, stone snakes.

Something very sharp, like a claw? Can and does tear through the long glove on her right arm. Perhaps it doesn't cut her as deeply as it may have been normally, as there's still some resistance. But it does cut her severely enough that there is very quickly blood trickling down the rest of that purple glove's length, and her arm.

She pulls back a step in the next half second, but... dogs in attack act quick. Quicker than most humans think, and in pushing those instincts away that's all Lily's left with - thinking, and realizing she doesn't have the experience to truly know what to do in the heat of the moment. She's only ever done what she's felt. A flash of remembrance comes to her, Winter telling her not to over think, to just let her emotions go - and a realization that she may have had her power and skill, but she had none of Yuri's true experience...

There's a dozen different ways, she realizes in an instant, that she could have done this differently. Ways she could have dispatched this monster - saved it, too - and protected Winter. However, it's a little too late to realize all of that.

She's already made enough mistakes, which she pays for in the next moment, when the dog monster's fangs suddenly clamp down on her shoulder. Once again there is a limited resistance before the force of the beast's jaws and its teeth tear through her clothing, and then dig into her flesh. Dig in, and not let go.

Even as Moonlight stands there, eyes widened in horror, feeling more pain than she ever had in her entire life... she can't bring herself to scream. Her voice only comes out as an uneven whisper. "W- Winter... get a-away...!"

Edited 2014-05-28 04:06 (UTC)

May 23rd; Lily, with Winter accompanying

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May 27th

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May 26; Russel/Jasmine/Jonas

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