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 Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 8:38 pm
The nightmares were getting worse. It wasn't the fact that he couldn't remember what a dream was, or what if felt like to have one. Nor was it the fact that his particular nightmares were overcrowded with the dripping fangs of greater than and less than signs; the tireless march of both written and spoken words. For Sailor Merope, the very fact that his siblings kicked him out of their room when they asked him to "keep watch" when the nightmares first started was what was bothering him. It hurt his pride to have discovered that their Big Brother was no longer their protector, but rather a hindrance to trip over when they tried to sneak into their parents' bed for comfort.
Granted, not being needed anymore freed him up a surprising amount to attend to his... other duties. If you could call it a duty, that is: the sailor senshi was lying on his back on an exposed steel beam at a half-completed construction site, abandoned after the mysterious ailment struck Destiny City Central. After all, who would like to be in front of a bulldozer when the driver suddenly fell asleep? He didn't!
Despite his posture, Sailor Merope was restless. He fidgeted. Legs were crossed and uncrossed before folding as he pushed himself into a locked and upright position. He stood up and began pacing the length of the exposed steel beam, unable to sit still. Maybe the two cups of coffee he had before he came out here had something to do with it?
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Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:19 pm
Orion couldn’t sleep, every time he started to doze off he was plagued with nightmares. It was horrible, not to mention his teammate, his sort of but not really girl he was sorta dating, and his ex were all in the hospital asleep like half the city. He didn’t want to stay home so instead he patrolled, it kept him busy, but tonight even patrolling wasn’t enough to distract him. His mind kept shifting back to the hospital.
Giving himself a shake the eighteen year old stopped his patrolling and held out his hand palm up, focusing on it. It took a second and then the phone dropped into his hand. He tossed it from palm to palm thinking about who to call. His first thought was to call Eos and try to get some action, so that’s what he did, flicking the phone open he scrolled down to her name in the contact list. Pressing send he held the phone up to his ear. Ring…ring…ring…ring…ring…ring By the seventh ring he hung up, and it was a strike out for Orion.
A frown tugged at the corner of his lip, he didn’t have any other female senshi’s numbers. Well, he had Alcyone’s, but she was in a coma. His mind traveled to the other members of the team. He could call Atlas, but the senshi of Gravity was quiet and he didn’t want quiet tonight. He grinned thinking of Merope, he was the furthest from quiet that Orion knew of.
Flipping the phone open again he scrolled down to Merope’s name and hit the send button again hoping for better luck than before. On the second ring he heard his teammate’s voice. ”Hey, what’s up?” Orion stopped walking, leaning against a wall. ”Eh, couldn’t sleep, and I couldn’t get ahold of any chicks. Do you wanna patrol or something? I need a distraction.” ”Sure, I’m over at-“ Orion cut his younger teammate off, ”No worries, bro, I’ll just track you. I’m horrible with directions. See you in a bit.” He hung up before Merope could say anything and then went into the tracking functions. It was the first time he’d used it so it took him a second to figure it out. Once he did he headed towards Merope, occasionally glancing down at his phone to make sure he was going the right way.
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Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:49 pm
The senshi cellphone was a useful thing: it could scan other senshi and add their "number" to it, text messages, take pictures, and track. Merope had no idea about the last to abilities of the wonderful device, however; Alcyone and Atlas both had to show and demonstrate the cell phone's abilities for the boy, and while they did show off tracking... Well, Merope had yet to use it or try it out for himself.
This left him wondering: how was Orion tracking him? Did he slip him a tracker bug that he ate? Is Orion part tracker dog? Or was he just that easy to find? Sailor Merope didn't fancy stealth. Stealth was for ninjas, and ninjas were, well, ninjas. Was one sneaking up on him now? A quick glance over his shoulder proved him wrong. Good! He didn't like being snuck up on.
Suddenly wary of the thought, Merope twisted around to watch behind him. A ninja? Sneak up on him? HA! He'll watch his behind -- that will show the ninja! If there was any, that is.
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Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 10:03 pm
Luckily Orion wasn't all that far from Merope and it only took a couple minute for him to reach the abandoned construction site. He flipped the phone closed when he got there and then looked around for the pirate sailor. There, he saw a body up in one of the not-so-completed buildings. He approached silently, his boots barely crunching against the gravel. When he reached the base of the building he made a careful judge of the distance then jumped up landing neatly on an exposed beam, he was getting better at this. He looked across the building at Merope noticing he was looking behind him. A thought crept into Orion's head that made him grin.
Rubbing his gloved hands together he stood up and threw himself into the air, grasping a thick piece of cable that was hanging down from an upper story. He swung across the gap like Tarzan, a dull creak the only sound the cable made, letting go at the peak of his upswing arcing through the air. He landed in a squat next to Merope on his blind side and leaned towards him. "BOO!" He knew it was a mean trick, but he couldn't help himself.
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Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 10:48 pm
Merope was positive that there was something lurking around. On a night like this, there was something in the air that put Merope on edge, that made him wary of the quiet surroundings. Quiet in this area, at least -- neither boy knew of the plan Queen Beryl had set in motion while the Nightmare World claimed its victims, or of the National Guard that kept a close eye on the suffering city. In fact -- wait! What was that? The boy tilted his head to one side, listening for the sound. There! The sound of someon-
"AAAAGH! Ninja! NIN- ORION!" Merope flailed, falling onto his side at his teammate's sudden appearance. "What'd you do that for?! Geeeze man! Does that skort of you make you extra silent or -- y'know what. Nevermind dude," he said, sitting up and waving his hand dismissively. "Neeeevermind about your skirty-skirty-skort. Oh! Oh yeah dude! I brought coff- no wait. Waaait, I started getting sleepy so I drank mine, then I forgot which one was gonna be yours so I kinda drank them both to make sure, y'know? Sorry about that man."
A gloved hand was raised into the air, wavering back and forth in a blank manner as the over-caffeinated senshi tried to gather his scattered thoughts. "I," he began, "I honestly have no idea what I was about to say, hahaha! We should got do something extreeeeeme man!"
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Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:15 pm
When Merope freaked out Orion bust out laughing, rocking back on his heels. It worked out perfectly! And the other senshi's reaction was priceless. "Dude, I'm not a ninja." He laughed again, but then it was cut short. "Hey man, it's a skirt okay, Derp decided not to give me shorts under this thing." He wrinkled his nose, the senshi of Meteors was touchy about his skirt it seemed. It also seemed like he thought the guardian cat that woke him up, Derp, was the one who decided what costume he got. After he got done educating Merope about his skirt he realized the younger teen was acting like a hummingbird on crack.
Oh god, he had two cups of coffee? "Dude, what size coffee?" If they were anything bigger than mediums he was in for a long night. The red head leaned back on his hands, watching Merope. He laughed at his words, and took a second to look down at the ground then back to him. "We will totally do something extreme, but we should probably be extreme on the ground so you don't break your next. Alcyone would kill me if she woke up and you were dead." He glanced down gauging the drop, it was pretty high which was a good thing for what he was planning. If it was too close to the ground they'd both go splat. Reaching over he gave Merope a hard shove off the steel bar and towards the ground. "Going down!" He himself followed suit, leaning back until he tumbled backwards off the bar and started falling towards the ground. He flipped in the air landing on his feet a couple seconds later.
Orion glanced around for Merope wanting to make sure he made it down okay.
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Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:28 pm
Merope couldn't help but giggle at Orion's reaction to his skirt. He didn't push the topic -- he was lucky with his guardian cat, Chloe. Even though she didn't want to hang around him for that long due to his sphere, she at least gave him pants. And a vest. And bling. Merope liked to fiddle with his necklace and his sash when he was bored, and even now there was a soft jingle-jingle as he ran his gloved hand around the golden doubloon around his neck.
At the meteor senshi's question, Merope paused in his fiddling, thinking. "Um," his hands began to gesture, adjusting to mimic the various sizes of small, medium, large, and Big Gulp tall, grande, venti, and bucket size. He wavered between the last two sizes, before settling on the bucket-sized. "I think they were this big? I dunno man, I mean there was some whipped cream in'em too so it wasn't exactly that big... kindasortamaybe."
He did, however, perk up at the word "extreme." "Extreme?! YESSSSS! Just what we nnnnnarrrrrrggh!" The boy didn't linger long enough to teeter-totter on the steel beam's edge, nor did he have enough time to flail about comically. The boy instead rolled with Orion's push, similarly flipping onto his feet and bending his knees before landing on the ground. Despite his precautions, however, the younger senshi still managed to fall over onto his butt after landing. "WHOO!" He yelled, "That was AWESOME! So what's the plan man?! Are we going to go use your awesome tracking powers to go hunt down some evil? Or are we going to rescue someone? I think Atlas rescued all the kittens in the area, but -- oh! Oooh dude we could spar or somethin'!" He jumped up and dusted himself off, bouncing from one foot to the other excitedly.
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Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:43 pm
Falling down the side of the building was a total rush, but Orion was secretly glad that he managed to land on his feet without falling over. He hadn't been completely sure he would've been able to do that. He watched as Merope was not so lucky and couldn't help but laugh. "Bro, you need to lay off the caffeine." He knew they were going to be up all night, the younger senshi had basically drank in his body weight in coffee and whip cream.
He walked over to the pirate lookin senshi and was about to offer him a hand up, but he was up before he even got there. Running his fingers through his hair he shook his head. He opened his mouth to inform Merope that unfortunately his phone couldn't hunt down evil, but then he was distracted by the suggestion of sparring. He'd never sparred before. "Sure, a spar could be fun. With or without powers?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:01 am
"I'm coo'! I'm coo'!" Merope replied, forgetting his "l"s somewhere as he stood up again. Maybe he dropped them? He didn't look around for them, instead settling to adopt a Thoughtful expression.
He scratched his nose and began, "Well, your power makes the things fall down, right? Meteors! Meteorites? Something like that, but stuff falls down, right? And I already punch, but..." He looked up at the sky and squinted, staring at the crescent moon above. "Mmm, I think we better not? 'cause even though I can punch, your meteors aren't a punch and I'd rather not be hit in the head when I'm not wearing a helmet. Sooo maybe just use our fists and feet if we're inclined-" Merope was more of a knuckle sandwich guy himself - "and no punches below the belt? I dunno about you man, but I don't think safety was in mind when our outfits were made, y'know?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:12 am
"Yeah, they're meteors, bro." He honestly didn't know the difference, but Derp had called him the senshi of Meteors, so he assumed what he called down from the sky were meteors. He nodded at Merope's explanation. "Yeah, we wouldn't want you to lose anymore brain cells, I'm not sure you have enough as is." He grinned, punching him in the shoulder to show that he was kidding.
"Uh, yeah. Definitely don't go for the nads, that wouldn't be cool." He cracked his knuckles then looked around. "So, how do we start?" He'd never sparred anyone before.
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:27 am
"Meeeeeteors!" Merope laughed, using the push of the shoulder-punch to spin in a circle. "Ahh man, what do you mean? You just started it! I've only been seriously punching for, um, what a couple months?" The senshi paused, counting something off on his fingers. He was muttering something as he did so, something that sounded like... the months? "..ril, May! That's five! Five months, thaaaat's it! I've only been punching seriously for five months, sooo!"
He held up his hand and curled it into a fist, keeping his thumb pressed against the side of his hand. "See this? I saw in a movie that if you punch with your thumb inside your hand, you can break your thumb! So with the fist like this, you apply it to the this area!"
The senshi of rogue waves lashed out with his right hand, aiming to plant a punch at Orion's chest. He used his left hand to grab his necklace and toss it over his shoulder. "Don't punch my doubloon dude!"
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:48 am
Orion laughed shaking his head, Merope on a caffeine high was certainly an experience. He wondered how bad the crash was going to be, from the looks of it he wouldn't be surprised if he had to carry the senshi of rogue waves home.
He watched Merope make a fist, copying his movements. He did know how to make a fist, but a refresher wasn't unwanted. "We wouldn't want to break anyth- oof!" He wasn't prepared for Merope's punch and he stumbled back a dull pain radiating from the center of his chest.
"Oh man, nice one!" He reached up tugging on one of the green strings that tied his arrowhead brooch to his collar. When the bow came undone the collar and brooch slid off to land on the ground. Throwing a fist into that brooch would be painful. "My turn." He grinned and threw a punch, aiming for the center of his chest.
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 1:00 am
Merope drew his arm back, lifting his fists up in a defensive position. "Hoo-hah! That's what I'm... I'm... oooow man!" He dropped his guard, shaking out his right hand. "That hurt! Kinda. Sorta. My fingers are tingl-"
The boy was cut off as Orion returned the favor, sending Merope stumbling back several steps. "Hoooh! Yessss, c'mon! You can throw more of your weight behind it!" He cried, giving his hand one last shake before closing the distance between himself and Orion, throwing a punch as he stepped to put more of his own weight behind the punch aimed at Orion's chest, if a touch to the right of it.
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 1:08 am
It did hurt, Orion's fist had collided with Merope's sternum and it sent a shock radiating down his arm. He shook his fist out, wrinkling his nose. "Damn, that does hurt."
He copied the defensive posture he'd seen on TV, but it wasn't enough to block the punch coming for him. This one hit with more force just above his pectoral muscle sending a stab of pain down his right arm. "Holy crap! Coffee turns you into the Hulk or something." He shook out his arm, rolling his shoulders. He was going to have a bruise there in the morning.
Since his right arm was still pins and needly he stepped in, throwing his weight behind his punch. But he was using his left hand and he could tell his aim was off, the blow would be a glancing one if it hit at all.
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 1:31 am
"Roll with it, man! Roll with the punches'n'shots!" Merope called out, "Roll with the punches and put your weight behind it, man! This is AWESOME! I better need an ice pack tomorrow! Whoo!"
The boy was beginning to jump-shuffle in a way reminiscent of professional boxers on television. As Orion threw his punch, Merope side-stepped away, spinning with the punch before returning the favor with one of his own to Orion's gut.
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