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 Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2014 3:49 am
Though Gigi tried to go back to her normal life, sleep remained a gamble, full of terrors old and new, memories and monsters. The future was unsettled, and she found it hard to focus. Being Sailor Subamara was a more productive use of her time than trying to rest, even if she just sat on a rooftop and watched the cars go by, fiddling with her phone. The messages she’d received answered some of her questions, but she still had more. Some of the things she’d dreamed didn’t gel with what was in the Primer – but others did, things she didn’t think she’d known before the nightmares. It was so confusing. She needed to talk to someone, but getting up the courage to make contact was hard. Sailor Athene was probably super-busy, and she didn’t want to be a nuisance. He didn’t know her. She’d only been a civilian when she met the other senshi, just a clueless victim. Even if he remembered saving her (which seemed unlikely), she couldn’t give her real name. She typed and erased the message repeatedly, trying to get the introduction to sound right. Eventually, she ended up with something she was reasonably happy with. Quote: Hello, my name is Sailor Subamara. I found your contact details in the Senshi Primer directory, and I was wondering if you would be willing to meet up sometime to help me with a few questions? I am not really new, but I am not experienced and would like to learn how to do more. I have been having some nightmares, and I want to do everything I can to make sure they don’t come true. It says you are a teacher, and I would appreciate any advice or assistance. Please let me know? Thanks for your time. –Subamara She read it over three times, to make sure there were no dumb typos or weirdness, bit her lip and sent the message.
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 5:00 am
Athene had not been long powered up when his phone pinged to let him know that he had an incoming message. He was expecting maybe something BlackWatch related or mayhaps something from Ida, as the two of them were still to some extent patrolling together, despite the day to day awkwardness between them that had sprung up in wake of the night of the shared nightmare. The name however when he brought out his phone and checked the messages sparked no recognition. Subamara not a name he was familiar with. It did not stop him from typing up a return message: SMS to Subamara:
Hi Sailor Subamara, I'm fine to meet up and answer your questions as best I can. I can even do it tonight if you're still out and about.
Please let me know.
Athene He hit send, and slipped the phone into his satchel before picking up the hot chocolate that he had bought to while him through the night's patrol. He had no idea when Sailor Subamara had sent the message or whether he or she was still powered up, but if she was and she wanted to meet then he would go - after all his primary focus as a senshi was to help out those who were new to the best of his abilities and although her message had stated that she wasn't really new, it had also admitted that she was inexperienced which by his book was close enough. And it had also mentioned something about nightmares, something that he was unfortunately more familiar with than he would have liked, although he doubted hers were of a future that was not now as his seemed to have been - after all that would be a pretty big coincidence.
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2014 3:59 am
Subamara nearly dropped the phone when it chimed with a returning message. She hadn’t been expecting so quick an answer, and wasn’t sure whether it was a good sign or not. She read it over quickly, and with no small amount of relief when she saw Athene was willing to help her. She typed back, craning over the chimney she was leaning on to read the street signs below. Here seemed safe enough for now, she couldn't feel anything chaotic about. Her need for answers overrode her concern about who else could find her if she lingered in one spot. This wasn't the future. The government itself wasn't tracking her. She typed and sent the message with less hesitation this time: I’m still here! Tonight would be great if that’s okay! I’m on Short St. near the university. On the roof of the big red-brick office building. Or I could come to you? Thnak you so much! - Subamara She hoped the directions were enough. After all, he could be anywhere in the city. She went back to exploring the phone's functions while she waited for a further update, wondering if it had some kind of GPS built in if she needed to leave her position and meet him somewhere else.
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 4:34 am
It didn't take long for his phone to ping with another incoming message and on glancing through it Athene realised that he wasn't so very far from the location mentioned in Subamara's return text. He tapped up a quick return message: SMS to Subamara:
Hi Sailor Subamara,
I'm fine to come to you. I know the location and will hop over your way as soon as I can (should be soon as I'm actually not that far away).
Athene He hit send, then slipped the phone away and headed off. Reaching Short Street from his current location was a ten minute trip and the mentioned red brick building was distinctive. Even if it hadn't been however, the other's senshi's aura was also a distinct clue in its own right. Powered strength it easy enough to gain the rooftop and then he was making his way over towards the curly-haired senshi. "Good Evening" his greeting was quiet and spoken when in earshot. "Sailor Subamara?" He made it a question, just in case the senshi garbed in white and browns wasn't the same one that sent the message - because although it was unlikely it was still a possibility. He waited for her response before adding "I'm Sailor Athene, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long."
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 4:37 am
Waiting was hard. Subamara spent the time trying to calm her jitters and wondering just how to start the conversation. It was good to be doing something finally, but at the same time, how did she even begin to excuse her long years of doing nothing at all, even when she owed her life to a senshi. It wasn’t long before a powered aura impinged on her senses, a very powerful one at that. She was unsurprised to see the white wings adorning Athene’s teal and white uniform when he arrived. He looked different to either of her memories of him – the real ones of the senshi who saved her years ago, and the nightmares of an older version, glimpsed through flames in a future that she needed not to be real. “Yes, that's me!” she said, nodding and giving a little bob curtsey. “Thank you so much for coming! It wasn’t a long wait! I'm Subamara, Senshi of Coffee. Which you can imagine is super-not-helpful for fighting and everything. I want to help! I just… don’t know what to do.” Her shoulders slumped in a little helpless shrug, hands falling to her sides and twisting together nervously. “I was hoping you wouldn’t mind answering some questions, or maybe giving me a tip or two?” she finished hopefully.
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 5:38 am
"It's nice to meet you" Athene said quietly. He sat down, a rueful note creeping into his quiet voice as he added "And I'm the senshi of beads myself" admitting as he continued. "My magic's completely on the supportive side." Well at least it was whenever he could get his base and super senshi abilities to work. The slump in her shoulders and helpless little shrug that he wasn't certain that he was meant to see kind of reminded him of himself when he'd first started out as a senshi - at least when he'd first started to properly patrol that was - since it had taken a while from when ********* had first awakened him on his first (and last) Summer camp trip. He'd spent so much time questioning himself and wondering just what he thought he was doing, particularly given the fact that he couldn't even control his own magic - magic which seemed to have a mind of it's own. He shook his head at Subamara's mention of questions "I don't mind answering questions." It was his main focus for being a senshi to help the new or (as in this case) not so new senshi and knights to the best of his abilities. And... And there was the fact that Athene would have loved to have had someone to ask questions of back in the days when he'd been starting out, would have loved someone to have talked to and to bounce things off. Mayhaps if he had then he wouldn't have been quite a lousy senshi as he'd been back in those days. That wasn't to say that he was a particularly great senshi these days - Athene didn't kid himself and knew that there were much stronger senshi out there - senshi who were much better than him at fighting this war that they all seemed to be thrust into... But he also wouldn't wish his way on having to learn on anyone so if even a little of what he'd picked up could be useful then he was more than happy to share.
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 6:57 am
“Thank you.” Subamara dropped down beside him on the roof, smoothing her skirt. She hadn’t even thought about his sphere, but suddenly the string of tiny shining beads through his dark hair sprung into significance. Pretty, but scarcely more dangerous-sounding than her own power. It was a little bit reassuring. He sounded so disappointed with his sphere, though. She loved coffee, even if the magic seemed useless, so she’d assumed the cat had known. But it was a rebirth thing, not the cat choosing. Maybe not everyone got something that they cared about. The Primer hadn’t really mentioned the specifics of magic, but it did say they were supposed to be warriors, soldiers. ‘Support’ was like a card you played on your warrior, not the warrior itself. “That sounds like an awesome sphere! You’re an eternal senshi, aren’t you? You must have a lot of experience! I think I must be supportive too.” Most of what she knew about her magic had come from her future memories. It definitely wasn’t offensive, or even protective. It wasn’t much of anything, really. The real question, the first question was: “Why us? I mean, coffee and beads? Why did a cat look at us and go ‘yep, totally warriors’?” She wrapped her arms around her knees, and the next words came out small, but she needed to say it out loud, to make it real or make it leave. “I had a dream. A nightmare, really. Where the Negaverse won. That’s not… I mean… What can support magic do when they just want to kill us all?”
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Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 10:18 pm
"To be honest I'm not to sure" Athene admitted. "I was 16 and on my first Summer Camp when I met ********* - she's the cat that gave me my first phone and my henshin pen although I'm not sure that I'd have been my first choice for a warrior." Actually he would have thought that he would have been the last choice for some sort of warrior given that he hadn't even known how to fight and he hadn't taken the whole notion of talking cats and the whole being some kind of defender of justice thing that well - in fact if he was being honest he had taken it pretty badly and the whole swamp monsters later invading the camp thing hadn't particularly helped to take to it any better. His lips quirked up in a slight, fond smile "********* was kind of insistent that the henshin pen belonged to me though." She'd told him that it belonged to him and no one else and despite having both downs and ups with being a senshi, he'd never forgotten her words. "From what I've seen the magic we get seems to be either defensive, supportive or offensive." His slight smile turned rueful "And yes I'm an eternal senshi, the back wings and aura kind of give it away" the smile faded and his voice turned serious as he added. "All eternal senshi seem to get wings of some sort. Dark Mirror eternal senshi have black wings and so do Corrupted Eternal senshi - but theirs look like bat wings." He absently tugged at the end of his braid as he continued "And I guess I've been a senshi for a fair bit now - this is my third year. There's others who have been doing this for longer than I have though." Like Princess Polaris and Maia. He listened quietly as she mentioned having a dream about the Negaverse winning and for a moment his eyes looked startled beneath his glasses because she wasn't the only person who he knew who'd had dreams of a weird future, Ida had had them, Liryn had had them, Vespa had had them, he'd had them - it couldn't be coincidence that so many people seemed to be having them. "I've had dreams too" he admitted quietly. "Of a future where the Negaverse took over. I know others who have too" his dreams had shown him his cousin's death and that he had been something called a Guard, others like Ida and Liryn had seen more - much much more. "And support magic can be used to help others - take my magic - it doesn't always work but when it does it can trap things for a bit and my eternal magic can shield people for a little bit." He looked over at her, hesitated and then rummaged in his satchel and pulled out the chocolate chip cookies that he kept on hand for the occasions where he ran into ********* and help the bag out in silent offering as he asked "What does your magic do?" Adding quickly "That is if you don't mind me asking?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:24 am
She’d never heard another senshi talk about their awakening before. Hers was lost in a flu-haze, so it was interesting to hear Athene’s impressions. He couldn’t be that much older than her, she thought, trying to count back how long ago he’d rescued her from that youma. He seemed a pretty effective warrior to her, and knowledgeable too. Subamara mentally filed away each tip, grateful that he wasn’t assuming she would already know any of this stuff. There was a huge difference between kind-of-noticing things on a battlefield and having them so neatly set out, clear as if there was a blackboard. Signs to look for if she was reading the auras wrong were very useful. The Dark Mirror, who felt like Chaos but didn’t seem to act like it. Corrupted Senshi were a horror on another level, and she would avoid all bat-wings in future. It was good to know there were ways to tell their dark counterparts apart. She noticed Athene’s expression change, but she was prepared for disbelief right until he spoke. “You dreamed it too…” she repeated, a little distantly, as the snippet images of the future momentarily filled her vision. She pushed them back. That answered one of her questions, though it wasn’t what she’d hoped to hear. She’d very much wanted it to be her imagination, though the visions, the memories were too clear for that hope. Athene had seen it, and others too. It made sense, she’d seen him there. Dreams that crossed borders. Reality thin as the moments between waking and sleeping, breath to breath. Volcano ash and poisonous smoke and thick tarry darkness. No wonder she hated to sleep. Athene kept talking, and she let his voice push back the swirl of worry that the nightmares had drawn around her. She accepted a cookie gratefully, holding it carefully in gloved fingers to nibble at the chocolate edge. “Thank you. You thought of everything!” “That sounds like really useful magic!” she continued between bites. “You stop people getting hurt! Mine is a boost, I guess. It makes you feel more awake, alert. Everything sounds sharp. In the dream future, it was stronger, people sometimes got the shakes, too.” She stuck the cookie in her mouth and jittered both hands in demonstration for a moment. “Like they totally never had espresso before,” she concluded, removing the cookie. Such useful magic. Very not wow.
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Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:18 am
"Some" Athene admitted. "Although it sometimes feels like I got bits and pieces compared to others." Ida had seen more. Liryn had seen more. Increasingly Athene found himself wondering why it was that he hadn't - wondered what it was about him that he couldn't remember - after all if he'd been there shouldn't he have remembered being there? Subamara's voice broke into his thoughts, brought him back to the present as she thanked him for the cookie. She kind of reminded him a little of Gigi. In part it was the hair, in part the cheerful enthusiasm and he couldn't help but give her another of his slight but friendly smiles as he took a cookie for himself. "I actually try to keep cookies on hand on the off-chance that I run into ********* since she has a sweet tooth" he admitted. "I think it may be a guardian cat thing though since I live with one and he seems to like sweets too." He ate the cookie as he listened to Subamara talk about her magic, fishing out another one as he waited for her to finish before saying quietly "Your magic sounds useful too." He ate a bit of the second cookie before continuing "Both the Negaverse and Dark Mirror Court steal energy - both from civilians and from us" for a moment he thought about it adding "Us as in those like us who can power up." He ate a bit more of the cookie "So having magic that can make someone more alert and awake is pretty neat."
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 7:05 am
“Weird,” Subamara said thoughtfully. She could remember so much of the future that it was practically crowding out the real world. Going to college, and the way to her shop, and what she was wearing before she powered up for the last time, and so many faces. Less would have been better. It sounded like Athene was the lucky one. He had a nice smile, she thought, and let her questions about the future lie, in favour of the happier topic. “That’s a sweet idea!” she grinned back. “I met a cat who liked cupcakes once! I might have to copy your example!” She shook her head when he said her magic was useful, but as he continued speaking, she stilled, listening carefully, and with increasing surprise. She was aware of energy draining, there’d been mandatory ‘donations’ in the future, but future-Gloria hadn’t thought to use her power on the people being drained. Or hadn’t tried. She’d been so busy hiding. “Do you think so? I never thought of that – would that work?” Subamara bit her lip, mind spinning in hopeful circles at the sudden new angle on her power. If she could be helpful – if she could help people without needing to beat up on monsters… But there would still be the Negaverse agents to deal with. The rest of Athene’s words sank in slowly, bringing up a whole new round of questions – but he had volunteered, after all. “Wait. The Dark Mirror steal energy? I didn’t think… they were that bad? In the future, they were fighting the Negaverse with us. And I met a guy, for real in the past, and I was super-new then, but he didn’t seem any different to us. He showed me how to fight a youma.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 10:08 pm
"I don't see why not" Athene said in answer to Subamara's question about her magic. "Although mayhaps you can try to try it out or something." The slight smile on his lips faded at her question about the Dark Mirror Court, his face turning solemn. "The Dark Mirror Court does steal energy," he said quietly. "They do it by using something called a mirror wraith." He hesitated for a moment before continuing "They might not call it stealing, but to me it is because neither they nor the Negaverse are actually asking those that they take energy from for their permission before they take it. There's also the fact that they have some sort of alliance with the Negaverse along with the whole opposite sides thing. But..." For a moment he hesitated again before admitting "But I'm not really sure what's up with their alliance with the Negaverse since the Negaverse turned on them about..." he thought about it "Six or so months ago and for some reason decided to attack the Court." An awkward note slipped into his quiet voice "If you're asking me what I think about the Court then I'll have to admit that I don't personally see the Court as all bad" he tugged absently at his braid. " Don't get me wrong I hate the energy stealing and some of their members seem to really hate the Knights - but equally some of them have also helped us out and there are some who I've talked to who I think are okay, people who if things were different..." For a moment there was a wistful note in his quiet voice and then he shook his head with a small but wry smile "Lets just say that the Dark Mirror Court is kind of complicated and my opinion on them is probably not a popular one as we remain on opposite sides." LokisRose no worries, have an awkward Athene response back :3 didn't manage to get to the Briar and Kirra start, but am hoping to get that out at some point later on today <3
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Posted: Sat May 30, 2015 8:19 am
Grey areas, Subamara thought as Athene explained. It wasn’t the straight answer she was hoping for, but at least she wasn’t the only one confused about the mysterious other faction. She hadn’t meant to make him so defensive, though. Her encounters with the Mirror senshi had been positive too. “I’m sure you’re a great judge of character – if you think they’re not all bad, then maybe you’re right and everyone else just needs to give them a chance? Maybe they have a really good reason for needing more energy, and they just don’t know how to ask?” But then why have an alliance with the Negaverse in the first place, she wondered. The politics of the Dark Side were full of betrayals, no matter which story you were reading. But there was room for changes of heart. She had to believe that, because if the Dark Mirror hadn’t been helping them in the future, they couldn’t have held out as long as they did. No-one would have gotten out of the base camp. Then what she’d seen in the future could have been the ultimate fall-out of that broken alliance. “Does the energy-stealing hurt people?” she asked now. “Do people die?” Obviously the Negaverse killed people. She’d seen them kill people, and not just in her dreams. But was it their job to kill them right back? Her voice got smaller. “What can we do to stop them? Do we have to kill them?” She looked up at the more experienced senshi, fervently hoping he could offer any other option. She wanted to stop the future in its tracks, but even in the future, she hadn’t been able to do that. She didn’t want that answer.
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 9:44 am
Athene was silent for a few moments after Subamara asked her question, but at last he admitted "In itself no, I don't think it does." After all it hadn't hurt him when that wraith took his energy during that period when the mirror wraith had attacked him in broad daylight whilst he had been powered down, back when he had been trying to forget that he had ever met *********, tried to pretend that he wasn't a senshi... "It isn't right though, taking energy like that" his voice was firm as he spoke the words. "Stealing it without permission and treating them like some sort of battery-source." But then again energy-stealing was a topic on which he was not quite rational, could never be quite rational on given that his introduction to it had been during the city council meeting that had been held about three years back during the period when all the people had gone missing. The one that the Negaverse had gatecrashed and where Saffy had gotten hurt. The one where he had first found out that the Negaverse killed people. Subamara was asking him another question though and so Athene tried his best to push back his memories of that time, of his cousin laid up in hospital with a broken leg. He wasn't sure how well he managed to do so, but he did his best, his quiet voice solemn as he answered her question. "There are some on our side that have killed - some because they think that killing is the only answer - and some because they couldn't see any way at that point in time." For a moment his gaze dropped to study the roof that they were sitting on, studying the ground almost as if seeing something interesting there as he continued "I was told once that the word senshi means soldier, but I'm..." he hesitated for one long moment before looking up at Subamara. "I have never killed anyone. I don't think I can kill anyone and I don't want to either - I don't want this war that I've been caught up in to turn me into a murderer." He knew from what little flashes that he'd gotten of the future that Liryn called the 'future that was not now' that the older Athene had not had any problems with killing people. But Athene didn't want to be that Athene and he certainly didn't want that future to come to pass. "And I know that I'm a bad fit for a soldier, but that doesn't stop me from doing what I can. I patrol and try to keep an eye out for things and I try to help out as much as I can if there's trouble. And my team and I try to keep an eye out for those who seem new to this and give them as much help as we can. I think personally that's as much as anyone can do."
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:07 am
It was a small relief that the ‘stealing’ didn’t seem to be so harmful, relatively speaking. Stealing was something she could deal with. Athene was right, though, it was definitely all kinds of wrong when he put it like that. Energy theft clearly upset him, and she was again sorry that her questions were bringing up unpleasant memories for him, pushing his buttons. He seemed such a gentle soul to be caught up in all this. Subamara bit her lip, her head dropping forward in a forlorn nod as Athene continued answering her questions. She wasn’t surprised, as such. It was war, she couldn’t pretend now that it wasn’t. She felt old, she felt her older self looking over her shoulder, seeing the tragedies spreading out before them like dark water. It was already happening. The path was already set for them. Kill or let them win. But the eternal senshi with his white wings had not stopped talking yet. He hadn’t killed, he hadn’t let the dark future overcome him. His words were solemn, but they shone with a hope she hadn’t found in all her future memories. They needed more people like him. “…Maybe they have enough soldiers,” she said at last. Mustering a brighter tone, a brighter smile, she continued. “You’ve definitely helped me a whole heap. So if that’s what you and your team do, you’re doing fantastic! I’m so glad you were able to come! I… You’ve given me hope.” She didn’t know what she could do. But in the future, she hadn’t even tried. She could follow Athene’s example. This time they’d do better.
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