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 Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:32 pm
She hadn't been able to find Hero Barrett in the mail room of Crystal; Daddy and Pop were still not allowing her anywhere near the newspaper to read the obituaries, and Grayson knew no more than she herself did. So really, the only viable option was to go to the Vice-Captain. She had to go see Taurus.
So it was that Sailor Virgo clambered out her window, leaving her boyfriend asleep in the bed; she was quiet, stealthy with long practice. The feeling of her slick brown underdress, of the silky gloves on her hands, it was the sort of thing that was long-familiar and as easy to settle into as the habits of eating meals with her family. Easy to remember as doing her homework, really, and it was easy to remember to do her homework even if it was hard to actually do. But that was besides the point; the point being, she had scaled the wall to Topher's window, and was wiggling it open with the toes of her heels braced against the wall, most of her weight on her elbows.
(Really it was lucky she hadn't lost too much muscle tone; otherwise, this trick would have been impossible.)
"Taurus," she whispered into the dark room, hands braced on the inside of his window. She listened hard; nothing. So she kept calling him, her whisper growing steadily louder. "Taurus. Taurus. Topher! Wake up!"
Oops. She didn't want to wake up the whole house.
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:00 pm
Topher mumbled something into his pillow, bringing the fluffy thing around his head to cover his ears at the noises at the window.There couldn't have been anything there. Not now! Not when he had finally gotten the rare moment to curl up in his bed and forget everything for a few hours.
He wanted to ignore it but the sound and urgency of his given name had finally jostled him out of the light sleep he'd fallen into. He finally moved the pillow, tossing it to whatever corner the majority of the bed clothes normally ended up by the time he woke up. The moment Topher looked to sluggishly pulled himself out of bed and stumbled over to the window, it was easy to see that the past few weeks had been hard on the newly appointed Captain. The routine of sleepless nights and long school filled days gave him the overall look of the overly stressed teen and the resounding aura of 'tired' followed him everywhere he went.
"Virgo?..."
It wasn't everyday that she would just climb into his window and wake him up. In fact, it had been so long since he'd heard anything from her that he could have just written it off as a dream. Dream or not, she seemed as real as ever and, if it was a dream, at least he could be happy that he was still asleep after all. "What's wrong?" Topher whispered, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand to try and focus better in the light. "What's this about?..."
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:09 pm
"I can't find the Captain," she said, which was ironic--seeing as she was now, in fact, speaking to the Captain of the Zodiac Guard. Her blonde hair was slicked against her temples, at the back of her neck, as she scrabbled inside Topher's window. Her entrance could be mistaken for a small bird flying into the house, or a bat skimming the side of it. Altogether, aside from her exclamation of his first name, it had been a very quiet entry. "I can't find the Captain," she repeated, "and I need to report in. Leo and I are prepared to return to duty... forgive us for our absence."
The senshi of Innocence was tinier than usual; skinnier, with lithe limbs and wiry muscles. She stood there, a good six inches shorter than Topher, at parade rest, her chin lifted a bit to watch his face. "You don't look very well," she observed, looking at the shadows under his eyes, the weird pallor of his face. "Maybe you shouldn't come out patrolling with me. We can talk here, if you want. I would really rather patrol, because then we can talk and not whisper, but if you want to stay in here, we can."
Then, relevant to nothing: "I give the best hugs. Everyone says so."
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:35 pm
"Captain...?" Every fiber of his being wanted to believe that she was joking; possibly making an underhanded remark about his tired state. Topher hoped she didn't mean Hero. The same Hero who had died weeks before and left him with her responsibilities was gone. The only Captain here was the lonely senshi of defense. He took a small step back, just as quiet as hers so she would have more room in the small space he called a bed room.
This couldn't be happening. There was no possible way that a blond Virgo just jumped through his window asking about the long dead Aries and that Leo, no, Grayson was alive. He watched her for a moment, letting the confused expression on his face show that the wheels in his head were still turning and trying to figure this all out.
Finally, after taking a moment to take in all the things she said, he was finally able to form a coherent sentence. "Patrolling? Did I miss something or am I really dreaming?" A hand ruffled through his hair as he sighed, walking backwards until he was able to bounce back on his bed. "The last time I checked, I've been Captain for awhile now. I'm going to need a lot of hugs if I've been running around like this for nothing."
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:01 pm
She waited patiently, but almost wanted to laugh. Because clearly he was joking, pretending he didn't know the Captain was Aries. Was Hero. Elke idolized Hero Barrett, wanted to be just like her one day. Maybe she had graduated early? No, she was the same age as the Princess. She would have had to graduate really, really early. So she had to be around somewhere...
...Topher was the Captain?
Virgo cocked her head to the side, her hands dropping to her sides. "What," she asked, a lilt in her voice. "You're the--" Which meant something had happened to Aries. Something had somehow removed her from the Guard. Had she gotten hurt? Very, very badly...
"You're awake," she said, meekly; she crossed the room to set herself next to Topher. Virgo ran a hand over her blonde hair, tried to think of any other reason for Hero Barrett to not be Captain Aries any longer. "What happened? While Leo and I were gone. What happened to the Captain? And... and Aurelia! Have you made any progress on finding the Opal Crystal? Taurus--" he was always Taurus when it was important "--what's going on?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:29 pm
It wasn't good to bombard a tired Topher with lots and lots of questions. It was exceptionally bad to bombard him with important questions when he was sleep deprived and confused. Topher rested his head in his hands as he tried to find the words. It wasn't everyday that he had to tell someone that not only had to tell someone that their former Captain was no longer living but they themselves had been dead to him until just a few short moments ago.
"Aries is dead..." It was probably best to start at the beginning. "Not just Aries but both of you too or were to me rather," he chuckled lightly. Leo really was alive. They were both alive. That had to be the only good news he'd heard in weeks. And still that didn't lighten the mood of the conversation at all. There was still the matter of the Opal Crystal that was lost at the same time the city woke up again. The blue haired boy took a deep, calming breath before continuing. "I have no idea where the Opal Crystal is. I looked and looked and looked but it's pretty much hopeless as of now," the increasing panic in his voice was testament to that.
"I just don't know what to do anymore." The Zodiac Captain looked to her, the look in his eyes pleading for the support that he desperately needed.
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 10:11 pm
"Aries is dead?" Virgo gripped her knees, tightly, so very, very tightly. It might bruise, was probably bruising. The Captain was dead... long live the Captain?
She shook her head, fiercely. "Maybe it's a mistake. Maybe the Captain isn't really dead. She can't really be dead." Denial was Virgo's first refuge in times of trouble. Pretend it wasn't happening and just like that it wouldn't be. But her own experiences of late propelled her beyond that, and after a moment, she said, "It's okay. It's okay, you've been really busy, it's okay that you haven't looked for it. Uh... Do you know what happened to Wiseman? You could ask around, I think I heard a rumor before..." Before the crash, before her coma and everything. "...before, that some Negaversers or something were running into him? Or... or any of those people that Aries wanted the Princess to meet. Have you spoken to the Princess? Is she okay?" Virgo personally had only seen her once.
The constant questioning--if she'd been thinking, if she hadn't been just probing for information to inform her own self--wasn't meant to hurt Topher. It was her instinctive reaction. To know how to better protect Leo and the Princess, she had to know what was going on. Her Captain was the most trustworthy source of information.
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 10:33 pm
"It's not a mistake. Aries is dead. She's dead and she's never coming back...' it was something that Taurus had to remind himself everyday. He was Captain. Not Aries. Not matter how much he wanted her back, he had no choice but to continue on in her place out of necessity.
Topher leaned back on his hands, kicking his feet out like he got a sudden surge of energy or nervousness, Whichever came first. "After people started waking up and asking questions, quite a few just never returned. There's been no word from or about Wiseman. At least none that I've really heard beyond what was common knowledge." In fact, it was still a mystery about what happened. No one really knew or they weren't saying what they knew.
"I haven't seen the princess either. Not since...before..." He couldn't really explain it. He'd been around for everything and yet it seemed to yield no answers whatsoever. The questioning wasn't going to help much nor was it actually going to inform her of much. Taurus wasn't the fountain of information like he should have been. Taurus was just as starved for information as the next senshi even if he was Captain.
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Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:05 pm
Dead, and never coming back. Virgo pressed her gloved hands under her eyes, willing the tears away as best she could; she set her hands on her knees when she was certain she wasn't going to cry, and took a deep breath. Plenty of time for that later, when she could share this information with her boyfriend. He already understood how badly the Zodiacs were needed; this would make it even clearer.
She could forgive Topher the lack of information. After all, she didn't know much either. But her jaw dropped at the information that he hadn't even seen the Princess. That was unforgivable, especially for the Captain. "You haven't even seen her," she hissed, her surprise obvious in her green eyes. "But she's--she's everything." Now she regretted saving her sweep past Crystal for after talking to Topher. She felt hypocritical, terribly hypocritical, but it was true. The Princess was the soul of the Zodiac. Without her, everything was over.
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