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 Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 8:35 pm
Megrez had been lurching around town in a daze after killing that captain. She still had two slashes in her fuku from where he had nailed her on her chest and back, but at least 90% of the blood on her face, gloves, and chest was most likely his. She was so tired that she was considering just powering down and napping on a park bench without even bothering to go home. Sure, her parents would worry when they checked her bedroom in the morning and she wasn't there, but it could be explained away. It could all be explained away. Just when Megrez was about to go through with her park bench plan, she saw something familiar that got her excited all over again. A flash of ginger orange hair, plenty of skin showing... ah, she knew who that was well. "Penthe!" she called out, running up to Penthesilea like an overexcited puppy. "Penthe! Pen! PenPen! Hi! Did you get my text? Did you?" She hoped Penthe had gotten the text. It was very important!
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Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 6:35 pm
Penthe had been patrolling aimlessly when she recieved Megrez's text. As soon as she got it, the redead practically panicked. Ever since that night in the warehouse with Castor - which had set even her off-balance, and left her doubting her purpose in the war - she had been afraid for Megrez's sanity.
i stpppd n hs nec lik u do
God, what had she done? Part of her was glad that Megrez was strong enough to do it, but part of her wished, equally, that she wasn't, because she was afraid that this wasn't strength at all.
Hearing Megrez call her name, so delighted, made her feel even worse. Sure, she was broken, and she delighted in death and violence and murder - but it felt wrong that Megrez did, too.
"I got your text," she acknowledged, "an' I'm really proud'a ya." It wasn't entirely a lie. She was proud to see someone else step up. That didn't mean Megrez's mental state didn't worry her a lot.
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Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 7:51 pm
"Thank you!" Megrez said entirely too brightly, like she had just been complimented on her hair or something. "I knew you'd like it! He dropped his weapon and I wasn't gonna miss that chance. There was a lot of blood. Oh, and like I said, I stepped on his neck like you showed me! Oh wait wait wait, I just remembered something." Fishing her phone out of subspace, she turned the phone towards Penthe. "While I was killing him I came up with this great idea! Look at the phone, and I want you to say, 'Gots a Nega here who wants to die for Negaverse. Oblige him.'" She didn't know if the reference would be lost on Penthe or not, but she hoped that she would get it and the result would be every bit as epic as in her imagination. Pressing icons on her phone and bringing up the camera, she said: "Ready... set... go!"
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Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 8:46 pm
Penthe just sort of stared, for a long moment. Good God, Megrez was way too chipper about this. It was actually a little frightening. And...of all things, she was requesting an Inglorious Basterds reference? Oh well, might as well give it to her.
"Gots a Nega here who wants to die for Negaverse. Oblige him." Her accent didn't quite match the one from the movie - Louisiana provided a twist on the normal Southern accent that was all its own - but, well, she still felt a little bit bouyed and amused. And then she remembered what day it was - and where she could go. She was pretty sure that she still wouldn't be able to complete the third Trial, but that was okay.
"Hey, Megrez, you wanna go somewhere special? 'Cause I can go back t'my planet, tonight."
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 10:11 pm
Saving the recording, Megrez giggled. "Yes, yes, yes! It's perfect! If only there was something like a senshi-only phone Youtube." Of course, Megrez didn't consider the issues with uploading such a thing, even if it would be exclusive to senshi. When Penthe mentioned her planet, she nodded vigorously. "Oh, cool! Yeah, I'd love to check out your planet! I'm going to go to my planet this weekend. Do you know what to bring for when you're up there for more than a few hours? Because I wanna be there all weekend. But yeah, maybe you should tell me when we're up on your planet."
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:49 pm
She shook her head for a moment, smiling fondly. God, Megrez as a sweet kid - she didn't deserve to be caught up in all this. Poor girl was too young to be murdering people.
(Even though she wasn't much younger than Penthesilea herself - Penthe considered herself sort of tainted, always meant for violence, because why else had she always taken so much joy in it. This just focused her on what she was always been meant to be.)
"Well, my first trip I went for four days, an' I packed a lot of canned food. An' an opener, an' a camp stove for cookin'. Water, too -- no need fer clothes, though, you're in fuku the whole time an' you never need t'power down." She reached out and offered Megrez her hand, calling up her phone with the other one. "Take my hand, an' I'll take us on up. I think you'll like it."
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Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 9:34 pm
"A camp stove...? How am I going to carry that?" In her current state, Megrez was not one for logistics. She just heard the word "stove" and imagined some big heavy thing. When Penthesilea extended her hand, she took it eagerly, wrapping her blood-doused fingers around Penthe's, even squeezing a little bit. "How's that? Are we going now?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 9:58 pm
"Ain't much more'n a small can'a propane, usually," Penthe said, a little absently. Her fingers curled around Megrez's, and she frowned slightly, pressing her finger to the center button and closing her eyes. There, in the back of her mind, was the drumbeat she associated with her world, and in a moment they were swept off Earth and onto Penthesilea.
She opened her eyes, and immediately recognized where they were. The main street of Telnarquel, right in front of the hospital.
The memory came all at once.
"General!" Someone called, and Evadne turned. (She was in a room, standing over a table covered in maps and diagrams and the walls were covere din plans - some kind of war chamber.) "General, I bring...I bring terrible news," the speaker was a young girl, barely old enough to be done with the agoge, and she was wringing her hands fearfully.
"Speak," Evadne ordered, gently.
"They - they've breached the hospital, and slaughtered everyone inside!" The girl said, and her eyes brimmed with tears.
Emotions came in a rush - agony, guilt, rage. The wounded and their treatment-places were supposed to be off-limits - what barbarians this enemy had to be, to be willing to do such a thing.
And in the end, it was Evadne's fault. This was her war. And her people were paying for it.
When she came back to herself, Penthe was still roiling with remembered emotions. Evadne's rage and grief and guilt settled in her chest, and her hand slipped out of Megrez's. She had to squeeze her eyes shut and force back tears, but it was obvious she was suffering.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2014 8:01 pm
"Huh?" With Megrez's mind as shaken as it was, the translation from "can of propane" to "stove" simply didn't fully transfer through all the necessary circuits and fizzled out mid-transmission. She had no time to sit there and be confused, though, for soon the familiar feeling of motion embraced her, and she was sailing the stars with Penthe. When Megrez landed, she stared at the sight in front of her. They were in a city, one with a wide street. There were some buildings that appeared to still be intact, along with three particular ones that drew her attention, though she was unable to attach any real significance to them from sight alone. When Penthe's hand slipped out of hers, it jarred her. Penthe's hand felt warm in hers, and the loss of that warmth made her simplified mind want it back immediately. When she turned to look at her friend, however, what she saw caught her off guard. She had never seen Penthe appear to be in pain like that before. What could make her break like that? "Penthe?" she asked, a soft inquiry. "Are you okay? Did you see something?" Megrez wondered if she looked like this when she had her visions on her planet, though she certainly had never seen anything that would make her react like this. All she had seen was meeting her people and going to the markets and Elliot and the puffy things, all very mild, peaceable sights.
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 10:58 pm
"There was a war, here," Penthe said, and she was speaking without really thinking, without any sort of separation between herself and the memories. "I saw...I saw a messenger girl, comin' t'tell me that whoever the enemy was, they'd sacked th'damn hospital." She gestured to the building. "I know...somethin' bad had happened there, 's all bloody inside, but I didn't..."
She was still roiling in Evadne's emotions as much as in her own, and it hurt. Her chest ached.
"Whatever that war was, it was my fault." Her voice cracked. There was so much blood and death here, on her hands.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:04 pm
"Oh," was all Megrez could say. She really wasn't capable of processing deep emotional strain at this point. Yes, she could tell Penthe was in pain, but her ability to empathize was limited, and she simply couldn't fully understand what exactly was hitting Penthe so hard. It didn't help that she had yet to ever have such a strong connection to her past self. "That's terrible. I'm sorry." It was an understated, flat apology from someone who got the gist but not the full details of the situation.
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Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:07 am
"That's terrible. I'm sorry."
Part of Penthesilea wanted to angrily snap "no s**t," but that would serve exactly nothing except her temper. Her emotions were running high, and she knew it, but Megrez needed her more than her planet needed her. So she straightened, and she took a breath, and she shoved all of those feelings into a box in the back of her mind to deal with later.
"We'll keep goin', somea these buildin's are houses an' we can stay there." She said, and she kept walking, and she refused to look at the hospital because, quite frankly, no.
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Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 2:47 pm
"Oh, okay." Megrez followed Penthe like a lost puppy. The significance of the moment from before had slipped from her mind like wet soap. "Houses, huh? Do they have furniture? I remember there was some stuff in my palace last time I went. Most of the houses I've seen on my planet are hollowed-out ruins though. No furniture." She was wondering if 'stay there' meant that they'd actually be sleeping in the ruins of someone's house. Not that she particularly cared; the burst of energy from seeing Penthe was starting to fade. She really could sleep anywhere at this point.
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Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:12 pm
"Haven't been in one yet, but I'd figure so," she said, and she stopped in front of a rather solid one, pushing the door open. For a moment she swore it was completely furnished and there were people - but the memory vanished as quickly as it came. The front entrance was pretty much entirely gone, but there was a staircase that looked solid enough.
"I think th'bedrooms are on th'second floor."
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Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 5:20 pm
"You've never checked in your planet's houses before? I mean, there wasn't much to check in the houses on my planet, but... yeah." Megrez wandered towards the steps and set one heeled boot on it. "Hmm! No problems here." She wandered up the steps ahead of Penthe, which was probably unwise, since she didn't know the terrain quite as well. But it was just a house; what could go wrong?
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