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 Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:29 pm
For all the time she spent as a senshi, she never thought she'd be the one walking someone home, and certainly not one of their own. She knew she couldn't wrap her mind around the necessity of battle, and thus suffered horribly when it came to conflict. However, as a super senshi, she learned a bit more about the field of battle and that their Negaverse counterparts really do mean business.
It was hard to imagine that just months ago, she fought one of their agents in the middle of a restaurant, which devolved into more of a harmless food fight than anything. Thinking back on it, she almost laughed.
Yet now... She understood that lives were at stake. People could die, and Ida almost did, by the looks of things. If Leda didn't arrive, what would've happened? Would Ida have been able to save the civilian herself? Would she have died at the hands of the officer? Or would things have turned out the same, but with a different senshi saving the day? It was hard to think that she made a difference back there, but... As long as Ida was safe, and the civilian was safe, what did it matter?
Here she had the opportunity to voice her thoughts, and walk off the humming adrenaline left over from that jarring encounter.
"Whew... That was scary. I've never seen a Negaverse agent do anything like that before. Are you okay?" Leda never wholly processed the scene herself, but the fact that everyone escaped with their lives put her at ease. From the looks of it, Ida didn't sustain any heavy injuries, but... Leda hadn't seen anyone's hand in a senshi's chest before. That looked lethal. How was Ida still alive? Did he do anything to her? Is she different now? Does she have a heart condition from that? "Um, how's your chest? I mean... you know."
Leda sighed. She was terrible at connecting with other senshi.
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Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 7:42 am
Ida rubbed her throat as the senshi pair left the battle site, all of her aching in an all too familiar way. This was the second time corrupted hands had touched her starseed and she felt... Violated. Dirtied. It was going to take some rest and a hot bath to wash away the icky feeling and Ida was dearly looking forward to it.
Hearing the question, the teen shrugged, wincing at her sore throat. "It's okay, all things considered. He just sort of... Brushed it with his fingertips when you hit him. It was really good timing, by the way... Thank you for that. I'm not sure what I would have done without you. It would have... Gone badly for both me and that guy, whoever he was."
She stifled a sigh as she ducked behind a building, waving at Leda to follow her. Once in cover, a light wrapped around the flower senshi as she dropped her henshin, returning to her mundane self.
"We should be safer powered down... No signatures to attract anyone." Dressed again in her purple lace dress and work boots, she felt confident she wouldn't even stand out in a crowd. Gingerly she touched her throat again, already suspecting bruises were forming. Looks like the next week or so was going to be scarves and neck ribbons to hide the ugly purple marks. There was no way she was going to let her family see them... Just knowing that she wore the officer's mark on her skin was more than enough for her without other people seeing it.
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Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 1:21 pm
"Um, of course! I'm happy to help!" Leda offered a smile, halfhearted as it was. Inwardly she understood that she was happy to avoid witnessing another death, especially someone of her own side. Still, it was something she wanted desperately to avoid right now. She didn't need to think about those times. Right now she was surrounded by life, not death, so why did her mind want to stray toward those horrible memories?
Leda followed Ida immediately, since she desperately wanted to avoid splitting up. As far as she knew, they were both terribly tired from the previous encounter, and she balked at the thought of heading home alone. Not after that.
Leda watched in wonder while the soft, magical light encompassed Ida and replaced her with an unassuming girl in an admittedly cute outfit. Leda marveled at the selection of her attire, and how easily they meshed together to create a cohesive look, when the girl raised an excellent point. They didn't want to attract unwanted attention, did they? Thus, Leda followed suit.
No longer was she dressed in the familiar, steampunk outfit that adorned Super Sailor Leda. Now she stood in skinny jeans tucked into stunted black boots, and topped off with a billowing, translucent cream top. Beneath it was a deeper brown camisole, and she pulled the look together with a variety of bangles and a solitary pocket watch on a chain surrounding her neck. Now she was Sirsce, the wannabe fashionista with a hopelessly obsessive outlook on clothing. No longer did she command respectable strength or power over steam, only a marginally accurate map of where she was in juxtaposition to her house.
But it could be worse.
"Hey, um..." She began, before she realized that ex-Ida had no idea what to call her in her current form. "Oh! I'm Sirsce. Sirsce Xanthis." She extended a hand. "I guess it's nice to know who you're walking home with, huh? Um, anyway, do you have any scarves at home? Or turtlenecks? I know it's gonna be so hot in this weather, but um... I don't think you want those marks to show up, huh? So um, if you don't... Well, I have like, tons of scarves at my house. I can even make some for you to match your cute outfit!" So much for staving off the fashion comments.
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Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:29 am
A warm smile appeared as a hand was offered to her and Orah took it gladly, giving her a friendly squeeze.
"It's nice to meet you, Sirce. My name is Orah Gowan. I'm a junior at meadowview and my father's flower shop iiiiis...." She drew out the last syllable as she took stock of her surroundings, plotting the rout they would need to take home. Finally, she pointed, a look of relief spreading over her rounded, open face. "That way! My family lives in the apartment above it. Um..."
Slender fingers self-consciously touched the column of her throat again and the teen frowned. "Yeah... I'm going to be wearing scarves a lot, I think. I've got a couple, but I'd probably have to buy more if I want to avoid wearing the same ones over and over again. Um... If you had some you could lend that... That would be really sweet of you." A shy smile returned to her mobile face and Orah scuffed her heel against the ground, grinding her fawn boot against the pavement.
"We don't make the most money ever, so I'm sort of a thrifty shopper... I don't always have as much of the super fashion clothes as everyone at school thinks you should. Especially accessories like scarfs and things."
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Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 10:04 pm
"Ooh, you own a flower shop? Hey! That's right, I think I was in a flower shop around Valentine's day! I can't remember what it was called though..." Sirsce frowned, then realized her response was entirely tangential. "Err, I mean, um, it's nice to meet you Orah! I go to Meadowview too! Who knows, maybe we'll see each other again sometime?" That almost worked as a save, right?
"Hey, actually, we should totally meet up there. I mean, we can meet by the big oak tree that's right by the school gate, and I can totally give you some scarves there. Besides, I'm like... Desperate for friends. Um, it seems like it's harder to make friends here than where I used to live. Maybe it has something to do with all these youma and the agents..." Sirsce trailed off, shifting her gaze toward the ground. During trying times like these, don't people normally band together? Does it even make sense to shut people out? Though, she was talking about high school... Maybe it's nothing; she probably hasn't put out enough effort to meet people around the school.
Regardless, she had a new friend to walk home.
"Your outfit is totally cute though! You really know how to pick 'em." After offering Orah a warm smile, she took the dark-haired girl by the hand and attempted to lead her out of the confines of the alley. She didn't know if Orah's parents were night owls, or if they had swing shifts or some other unusual sleep cycle. Surely if they noticed their daughter was missing, they'd be worried, right? And considering what Orah just went through, she definitely needed a break from all that stress.
Sirsce paused momentarily. "Oh, and... Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me." Considering they just met, and apart from their similarities they were complete strangers, Sirsce wanted Orah to know that she wouldn't spill her powered identity to anyone. After all, Orah knew hers now too.
And secrets brought people closer together right? Wait, maybe it drove them apart... She couldn't remember.
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Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 8:17 am
It wasn't often that Orah had to deal with someone who was more bubbly than she was, but she was certainly not complaining. It was nice, for once, to have someone who sort of took the lead... Or whatever you wanted to call it. The questions and chatter came at a quick pace and the teen let them wash over her, soaking it in as a balm over the near disaster the night had been.
Sometimes, just once in a while, Orah missed having a life where she was nothing more and nothing less than just a teenage girl, working her way through high school. As tough as things had been, they were nothing compared to everything she dealt with now, and it was getting increasingly tough to hide the way she was changing from her father... Even as short sighted and absent minded as he was.
A little smile crossed Orah's face as she was pulled along, obediently following where she was led. Another teenager? That was actually pretty wonderful. She rarely met powereds that went to her school, most were older than she was. The compliment to her clothing, however, had her self-consciously picking at her skirt when she replied.
"I'd love that! Yeah, I can meet you out front... I sort of understand the friend thing, since I'm kind of the same way. It's hard to balance school, friends, homework and a super hero persona. I've had trouble in the past trying to keep pieces from crossing over into other pieces... And I totally trust you with my secret." Lean shoulders lifted and fell in a shrug as they walked hand in hand towards her shop in the business neighborhood, the tree lined street giving them the illusion of privacy.
"I suppose I'm sort of bad about letting other order people know who I really am. If I meet them more than once it seems to just happen." A girlish giggle slipped free as Orah looked abashed. "I'm just not good at distrusting people... Unless, obviously, they're part of the Negaverse or Dark Mirror Court."
The thought had slipped in unbidden and dampened her mood, reminding her that her throat and chest ached... Even her side ached, the deep wound all but healed now and usually not something to pain her. Thoughts of the Negaverse were not pleasant ones.
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Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 9:46 am
Sirsce stopped dead in her tracks while Orah responded. She definitely understood what it was like to balance all those pieces of her life, but... "Oh. My. God. You have trouble with it too!" She was positively elated. Were it not a little too strange, she would've bounced on her heels with all that energy and excitement. "Like, I almost introduced myself as Leda the other day, so it came out like I had lockjaw or something, and the guy looked at me funny, and I was so embarrassed, and..." She trailed off, realizing she began rambling. "Um, I mean... It's just really hard to get used to two names, and two lives, you know? It sort of feels like you're cheating. I think. I've never cheated on someone, but... This is what I imagine it feels like."
It certainly felt like she was cheating her mom out of knowing her. She had always been Sirsce, always the energetic little girl who loved all things fashion. She always had trouble with math, she always excelled at home economics classes. She always wiped her mouth after she drank. She had all these little quirks that her mother got to know so intimately, but... Then there was Leda, the side of her that her mother would never know.
The girl who fought so others might stay safe. She commanded the power of steam. She fought monsters that people could only dream of. And she had companions, people like Ida, who might join her sometimes and fight by her side, and vice versa.
And how was she expected to balance all that? To hide one life from the other?
Talking to Orah felt like such a relief in that regard. She didn't have to hide her other side, since Orah had the same problem. They were both two people, so there wasn't any reason to hide that from each other. If she was a Negaverse agent, then yeah, but... She didn't think White Moon senshi could be covert operatives for the Negaverse, could they? Ida and that agent weren't like... rehearsing some scene to learn her identity, right? She cringed at the thought. Maybe she should move on to brighter things.
"Oh... You met someone from the Dark Mirror Court? I met someone who was from their um... Group? Uh, anyway, he was totally trying to get me to join them, and they said they didn't want to fight anybody, so I don't really get why we're supposed to be against them and avoid them." Anyone who refrains from fighting has to be good, right? Fighting only led to all this death and damage. And she didn't want either one... Even though her senshi attack was designed for damage.
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:03 am
Orah stopped when Sirce did and chuckled at her outpouring of similar expirience.
"From what I've seen, everyone sort of has the same problem. I guess if you lived by yourself and didn't have any friends or family, it might be easier to hide everything, but who wants to live like that? It's definitely easier though, having a couple of friends who are on your side. Then you can share things and it just makes everything easier." Orah knew that feeling very well and thanked whatever she had done in the past that netted her the karma to earn the few friends she did have. They were such a boon... She hated to think about life without that support.
The feeling of cheating wasn't an unbelievable concept to Orah either. She figured to probably felt like lying, and she was always so conscious of the lies that had built up between her and her father. She had always been truthful with him, had always been the perfect, loving daughter, but there was a wall there now and she suspected he was starting to take notice.
"I met Remarque once... He said pretty much the same thing, but... You know they do the same thing the Negaverse does, right? They drain innocent people of their energy and their monsters run amok and hurt people. Maybe they don't actively try to hurt us, but Sirce... I would rather eternally fight them than allow a single innocent person to be hurt." Orah's eyes were very large and dark in her dusky face, which wore a serious expression that seemed out of place on such a young face.
"I know, sorta, how hard it is to know what to do... I didn't have anyone when I started out and I had to learn a lot by seeing it first hand. I can forgive a lot, but there are just some things that I can't ignore. The DMC sides with the Negaverse and there is nothing good in them. I've... I've seen some horrible things, just like what you saw tonight, and I've almost died because all I did was try to save another senshi from having her starseed ripped out. I guess you can really choose to think however you want, but while I have this scar across my side, I'm not going to be able to forget what happened."
The conversation had taken a dive towards far too serious and that had really not been where the teen had wanted it to go. She turned, pulling her hand out of Sirce's grip in a rare moment of not wanting contact, and started walking again.
"I'm sorry... That got a little heavy. It's just hard, you know?" She's aid as she rubbed her chest anxiously. She wanted to be rid of this feeling and try to get back to some sort of normal state...
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Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 11:14 pm
"Oh my goodness, I didn't know any of that! Remarque never told me..." She covered her mouth with her hands and fixated on a light far in the distance. Why didn't he tell her? He mentioned being a noble court that disliked violence and looked for a diplomatic solution to the war, but he never even hinted at draining energy from innocent people. And to think she wanted to join them earlier... What else had he lied about? No, she didn't want to think about it right now.
They had a brighter future ahead of them, they just had to go looking for it. "Thank you so much for telling me about that. I can't believe it... I mean, I can, but it's like, why would they do that?" She sighed. "But you're right, it's hard to think about right now, so..." She trailed off. So what? "Hey, I'm sorry for bringing it up. I probably shouldn't have said anything..." After all, given that Orah broke contact with her, she was probably disgusted by some of things Sirsce mentioned.
"I know what you mean though. When I started out, I had no idea what I was doing. And for the longest time I didn't even power up... I was scared. I mean, what do you do when you find out nightmares are real and you have to fight them? Especially if you don't like fighting at all... So I guess it's kinda ironic that I have an offensive attack, huh? Sometimes I think protecting people is the only reason I still use this stupid thing." She pulled out the henshin pen from within purse and eyed its faint glow. "Seems like a silly way to fight crime, huh?" She put it away shortly thereafter; she didn't want any onlookers to find out.
"I just kinda wish there was a way to help the new ones, you know? Since we never got much help ourselves. There's got to be a better way..." Someone needed to do something, or else they'd be fighting this horrible war forever. Destiny City already suffered for it, and they could take some of the blame themselves. "Maybe I'm being silly, but um, I get the feeling that some of all this fighting is our fault. Like we're not trying our hardest to put a stop to it." Though she hated to fight, Sirsce preferred a few hard fights over many scattered victories. The less damage she had to do, the better.
But why did she have to do damage at all?
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:50 am
Though the things Sirce brought up were sobering, Orah knew she hadn't meant them to be upsetting. It really wasn't her fault that Orah had had bad expirience a with the chaos side. It was a moment before she spoke again though, going over what she needed to say. It was maybe better to let Sirce form her own opinion of things, but it wasn't a bad thing to make sure she had all the facts and not just twisted, incomplete ones.
"If you see Remarque again, ask him about it. I can't claim to know everything. Just make sure you don't take everything he says as the honest truth. There is nothing stopping him from lying to you."
Deciding to change the topic, she started to shuffle her boots against the ground, clasping her hands behind her back. "I've... Sort of started something. You know, to train new senshi? Tsui, Athene and I have become a team with Chaonis and we're trying to find new senshi and teach them about everything they've suddenly been dropped into. It's been kind of slow going so far, but we're trying hard." The teen shrugged loosely as she gave a shy smile. "It's also nice to have sort of a team you can count on, too. I was hoping to reach one of the earlier with my phone, but I'm happy you came."
Feeling a little better now, she offered up a brighter smile, some of her tension leaking away.
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 8:28 am
Sirsce mentally made plans to question Remarque about energy draining, and whether he took part in it. Even if they managed to stay out of the straight fights, if they opted to drain civilians... That wasn't much better than the Negaverse, was it? And if he tried to say it's fine because they survive - well, that's like saying it's alright to punch someone because they always heal, right? Sirsce inwardly lamented over these realizations, as she had high hopes for the court, but ultimately they were touched by chaos.
"Oh, so you have a team too?" Sirsce recalled talking to Pasiphae a while ago about a much larger team. The fact that she ran into two team members of completely different teams surprised her; where were all these teams when she was a basic senshi? She could've used some help. "Um, I don't think I know any of them, but... It's super cool that you're trying to help the new ones! I mean, it's really hard to try to fight alone, especially when you don't know what you're doing."
Come to think of it, she still didn't know what she was doing. It didn't take a genius to find that one out.
"I think one of the hardest parts about being a senshi is figuring out how the enemy is actually bad. I mean, I've never actually seen a Negaverse agent drain energy, or..." She trailed off before she mentioned starseed pulling, as she remembered Ida's close encounter moments ago. "Anyway, without actually seeing these things happen, it's just kinda hard to fight them. And what if they're just as confused as we are? I mean, they're told to fight us too, right? So this could just be some huge conspiracy from the Moon Queen and their higher ups and.... Um, nevermind. That last part kinda came out of nowhere." She sighed and hung her head in shame momentarily.
And that moment didn't last long, either. "But if you can really help out senshi with your team, that sounds wonderful!" She offered a bright smile and nabbed Ida's arm again, leading her toward the estimation of her house. "But for now, we've gotta get you home! If your parents wake up and see you gone, you're like, totally doomed!"
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Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 8:55 am
"My team is kind of a new thing, and there are only four of us right now. I probably could have used a team from the beginning, but I think just plain training or even information would have been just as good. Something that could have prepared me for what I would be facing." Orah shrugged as they walked.
"I don't know if seeing something for yourself would be a good introduction... I feel like just having people with more expirience be there for you would maybe be the most beneficial. I dot want to encourage anyone to go picking fights, but I want them to be ready for it so they aren't caught off guard, you know? And if they found someone on the otherwise who wasn't completely lost, maybe we could help them come back to our side..."
Yeah, it sort of felt like pie in the sky talk, but... You needed to have a goal, even an unattainable one, to inspire you to do what you needed to do. Hopefully Orah could make a difference and help protect the people she cared about. A laugh broke from her though, when Sirce mentione conspiracy.
"That's.... I dunno, that feels like a really silly idea to me." Letting herself be grabbed and dragged along, the teen shrugged. "It seems hard for it to be a conspiracy. No ones telling me what to do and I've never heard of anyone ever seeing the moon queen, if she even exists. But I guess it's hard to prove it isn't too."
With her house in sight down the street, Orah let out a sigh if relief and seemed to relax more and more as they got closer.
"My dad is the only one who would care, so I will just do like normal and jump up to the balcony of my room. I usually leave the door unlocked for this reason, you know? Makes it easier to sneak back in."
Turning finally, she tugged the other girl to a stop. "Thank you, again, for helping me out. I want to make sure you know that I really do appreciate it."
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Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 11:50 am
Orah had a lot of good points - as senshi, they needed to know what they were dealing with even before they ran into their first Negaverse agent. Even their first youma. But often times, senshi ended up facing down the enemy without fully understanding what their duty is, or how to even use their powers. She suffered from that very predicament - when she first stumbled into senshidom, nothing really made sense. She didn't know what she was doing. She didn't even know who to contact, or who to trust with the whole affair, and then she discovered herself smack-dab in the middle of a battle.
Which led her to wonder, how does Ida intend to track down the new senshi? Was there some special way to identify who was new and who wasn't by their power signature? But that would only be useful if they powered up... She frowned and hummed thoughtfully as she tried to puzzle out Ida's means of discovering the newbies.
When the two ambled nearer to the house, Sirsce shot the girl a concerned glance. "Are you sure you're going to be okay doing that? I mean, you already got hurt tonight... You don't need to overdo it, you know?" In an effort to assuage any pain, Sirsce rubbed Orah's shoulder. Soon after, she let her hand drop. "You can always call me when you need any help! Or just, um, call me whenever you want to hang out or something. We're still high schoolers and all; it might be nice to just do something normal for once." Like shopping. Or makeup. Or anything aside from beating down youma and chasing off Negaverse agents.
Yeah, that sounded nice.
"Um, anyway! Be safe, okay? And don't forget about meeting me near the tree! I'll bring you like, loads of scarves!" With an exuberant smile and equally energetic wave, she parted from her new friend.
This was the second time she met someone as both a senshi and a civilian, wasn't it? Oh, how it felt wonderful to know the senshi she ran across in both degrees of their lives... How comforting it was to know that they were out there, even when powered down, always ready to talk or listen or fight beside someone.
There was a lot of good out there, and she could be a part of it.
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