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Interesting Conversationalist
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 Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 9:04 pm
Things had actually started to go right, for once.
It had been a long, combative road, but Rea was just starting to accept the responsibility of being the leader of their senshi team. It had taken another harsh beating (courtesy of Linarite) and a few cracked ribs, but in the weeks that followed things had begun to come together for the Dream Team. Eve was back on the team, at least for the time being, which had boosted both her and her roommate's moral considerable. Meetings had been regularly scheduled, cell phones (both regular and senshi) had been synchronized, offensive and defensive training begun. The team had even begun to start working well together.
There had been one thing gnawing at her though.
Walking down the sidewalk of Destiny City, Rea fiddled with the henshin pen in her vest pocket, an idle, almost anxious motion, watching the streets with overly-keen eyes. Although it was a rather warm spring day, the strawberry blonde girl didn't seem to notice the sun blazing down on her bare shoulders, nor the bright reflection of the sun off the windows of the shops as she walked past. Had she been any less discrete, passersby might have given her odd looks for the way she stared intently at any cat she crossed paths with, and any senshi might have mistaken her for a negaverse looking to happen upon a guardian cat.
They'd be half right, at least -- she was looking for a guardian cat. Chloe, to be exact, the guardian cat of the Dream Team.
Stopping by the little diner/cafe they had unofficially made their meeting spot, Rea pursed her lips in another anxious tick, sweeping her eyes once over the surrounding street before settling herself down on the bench, crossing and uncrossing her legs before reaching into the pocket of her jeans to grab her senshi phone. Immediately, the senshi names and numbers of all her teammates showed up, along with a picture of each next to the information.
That was, save one.
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Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 9:30 pm
It had been too long...too long.
The past few weeks had flown by, almost without a hitch. The only thing nagging her in the back of her head... was that Lyra was missing. She had been missing for quite some time- and Chloe had been really sparse on the details to the team. She wanted to make sure things were confirmed before she came to a conclusion- she did not want to say things that would turn out to not be true. The only good thing about this was... there was only one body found in the fire. It was confirmed to be a adult- so not Lyra.
The team has been doing fine on its own- but Chloe had been searching far too long by herself to come up fruitless. She needed to tell the team- and who better than the leader. Thing is, its hard to keep track of them all. THEY had the phones and she had access to central control... but it was too out of the way. It was a gamble- but she decided she had to at least try.
She wandered towards the meeting place- somewhere they had met multiple times before. It was this little diner out in the middle of no where. Sort of like a mom and pop place... at least the others said they had good food. As she turned around the corner she caught a glimpse of a familiar strawberry blond- and breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately there were people around- so she snuck under the bench and whispered. "Psst. Rea."
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Interesting Conversationalist
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Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 9:45 pm
Rea hadn't even noticed when the Siamese had snuck under the bench, too busy staring at the name-that-was-not-there, a little lost in her own thoughts. She had come to suspect something had happened to Lyra through her own means -- in the weeks which had followed, Beth had been conspicuously absent each and every time. It had not gone unnoticed by the almost a**l-retentive Marshall girl, nor, she was sure, had it been overlooked by Chloe. Yet the cat had not said anything, and Rea had brushed it to the back of her mind, school and senshi practice at the forefront of her attention. But she could ignore it no longer. It had become almost a nervous feeling in her gut, now, a feeling that made her want to clench and unclench her muscles, made her almost jittery in class, while patrolling, while riding or dancing.
It was inescapable, and the guilt that had tagged along for the ride was a hundred times worse. All she could think about was she should have done this sooner. But the truth was, she was almost afraid of the answer. When senshi disappeared... things were never good.
Rea jerked a little from her reverie as she heard the whisper from under the bench, her eyes flickering between the wooden planks to catch sight of blue eyes staring up at her. A flood of relief came unbidden at that second, and the strawberry blonde leaned down a bit, pretending to tie her shoes. "Chloe, what's going on with Beth?" she whispered, glancing around to see if anyone was near enough to hear her, "She hasn't shown up in weeks..."
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Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 10:19 pm
Peering around once more she was glad to have been heard- at the moment there were far too many people around to risk coming out in the open. There was also the risk of a negaverser spotting them.. and even in civilian it would be bad news if they saw Rea with a guardian cat. That was almost as if handing the senshi to them on a silver platter.
She was not trying to change the subject- but she did notice Rea playing with her phone earlier. "Astraea and i have been working on a project. My star collar is a communicator now- so ill need to make sure to grab the numbers from you later."
She paused next. Chloe didnt pause- what was wrong with her?
"Not... good things." She folded her ears backwards and laid down on the ground. She tucked her tail tightly around her body. "I have no clue where she is either... " She sighed as her eyes dialated- spacing out as if seeing something not there. "Im trying not to fear the worst- but when i returned the last night i saw her... her house was burned to the ground. They only found one body... a adults. I think it may have been her mother. I...haven't seen her since. I have been looking and looking and its like she just... vanished."
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Interesting Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:59 pm
Rea could only nod at the knowledge that the Guardian cat could now be reached without having to search all over Destiny City, forcing herself to process that piece of information despite the surprisingly intense want to shove it away. It would be useful. It would be VERY useful, hell, it would probably save their lives more times than she could count. But right now, all she could think of was Beth. Petite fingers laced together tightly around the cell phone in her hand, pretending to text as she listened to Chloe, her entire body going still as the Siamese paused.
If it was one thing about Chloe, it was that she was always completely in control. It was one of the things Rea really admired about their guardian -- she could be hostile and a little rough at times, but she didn't mince words, and she was always ready. She was smart and always on the ball. She had a backup plan for her backup plans, it seemed, and had a loyalty fiercer than any dog she had ever met.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end. Senshi didn't just vanish.
"We have to find her," she replied after a moment's hesitation, the obvious comment attributed easily to the fact that she, for one of the few times in her life, was intensely frightened. She had seen senshi die, sure, but it had never been anyone she had known well. Now that it was one of her teammates... one of her friends... Rea felt the nervous adrenaline coursing through her body, pushing her to act irrationally. "If they haven't found a body, she's still alive. They don't have her starseed. She might just be in hiding -- dammit, I should have given her my number earlier!"
Clenching her phone shut, the strawberry blonde resisted the urge to stand up, to pace, to start looking right that second. It wouldn't help. Rationally she knew this -- they needed to know the best course of action. Still, she couldn't help but stand up anyway, restless now, and it took every inch of self control not to pace. "Don't let anyone else know. Not until we're sure we can't find her on our own. There's no use driving anyone else to panic, we don't even know anything's wrong yet." Of course there was something wrong. She had been missing for weeks. Rea didn't say this out loud. Denial was an addictive thing. "Where have you searched? We should check places no one but a few people knew she knew about. If she's hiding, she doesn't want to be found."
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