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Poppy thought she was doing alright in her classes -- but she wasn't the type of girl who naturally excelled at that sort of thing, though. She'd stay up late as she could and stress about it, wake up with the pen-ink echo of her handwriting on her cheeks: and god, that English test was probably going to kill her grade, wasn't it. She'd read the book, but grammar was never any fun...who cared about how you said things, anyway? It was stupid.

But school was out, school was out -- two weeks off! That was going to be the best feeling ever; two weeks free of stress, to kick back and relax. Maybe she could help Desdemona with something, as far as putting that team together went. But aside from that one brush with the Page (..and that had been her own fault, really, she had antagonized him...), skipping the bus by powering up and taking the rooftops home worked the best out of anything. Of course Poppy powered down a few blocks away from home, because jeez, someone tracking her to her house could be nasty: any Negas who wanted to know could ask, but Order? Gross.

There was nobody around in this bathroom, so she slipped the pen out of her backpack and whispered "Warhol Asteroid Power, Make-Up!" -- and glittered, twisted. Shone. The fuku reaffirmed itself onto Chrysocolla's skin, the weight of her hair a comfortable blanket; and her backpack had gone with the transformation, although she'd taken a hoodie out before that, and she slipped the hoodie (black, overlarge) on, zipping it up high enough to cover the hole in her chest. The name in her henshin phrase was always going to be a reminder of she hadn't started out here, of that she had so many comrades-in-arms on the wrong side; but...what could you do?

...and there was a Lieutenant maybe seventy feet away. That was - well. That was interesting! Lieutenants didn't hang around Meadowview, usually, so that left Chrysocolla with a few possible answers: either this was someone new, this was a Lieutenant who went to Meadowview, or this was someone who just shirked their duties and figured schoolkids were easy targets. A smile crept its way onto her face as she bundled her hair into the hood, leaving the room and honing in on the signature -- and yes, yes - a girl who couldn't be any older than Chrysocolla herself, and a "Hey, wait up...!" burst out of her throat before she could stop it, moving at a fast walk. "Sorry, but...um...I haven't seen you around before. Are you new? I'm Chrysocolla...normally I'm the only one who hangs out here."

With a wave, Chrysocolla pulled down her hood, brushing seafoam bangs away to reveal a black starburst of a hole on her forehead -- and a startling amount of hair she'd bundled up into it. She pulled down the zipper on her hoodie, revealing a distinctly black bodice and a matching blackness on her chest. "Sorry, um, it's just...it's kind of cold out, and I don't like it when my arms get cold. It's nice to meet you, Lieutenant Sylvite." She giggled a little, cheeks pinking, clearly flustered by the interaction. "Try not to give your civilian name out, alright? Sometimes the older officers will get pissed at you...some of them have been around for years. I promise the mineral turns second-nature after a few weeks! How long have you been recruited?" Her eyes sparkled with delight, because oh man was this good. (At the same time, she was thinking...Alexa. Pink hair, curls; lilac eyes...yes, she could remember a girl like that, maybe. It didn't seem right, but that was what the glamour did. Outgoing, sweet: who knew? The Negaverse chose talented girls. Sweet, outgoing girls.)

"I'm part of the Negaverse, yes..you can, um, feel me in your head, right? My aura. I know it sounds like mumbo-jumbo, but...Order auras, though, they feel like someone bleaching your teeth, like you're biting down too hard on something sweet that's gone rotten. That's how they feel to me, at least." Chrysocolla gestured with her hands, fingers expressive where her voice was quiet. "Sorry if I'm asking way too much, but there's...not usually anyone close to my age. Everyone's pretty much been older than me, so...it's nice to meet someone else."

"My hair's honestly really not that impressive," Chrysocolla demurred; "Ochre's is longer than he's tall, and I don't remember what her name is, but there's one of us with ridiculously long hair...it's not this long when I power down, anyways, it's a weird magic thing." She shrugged, zipping her jacket back up, giving a sympathetic glance to Sylvite and continuing to walk. "How much did your General tell you? I've been part of the Negaverse since early August or so, but I couldn't tell you the date. If you tell me what you know, I can try and fill in the gaps...and I think my sister would be okay with training you, if you asked! But, um --" another few steps, and she sat down on a bench, patting the space besides her -- "come on, sit...we can talk better like this." She looked up with a small, shy smile, trying to be Small and Unintrusive. But this was important business.

"You wouldn't want magic hair. It's..it's honestly kind of a pain, really," Chrysocolla mumbled, absentmindedly pulling on one of her longer locks of hair. "Normally I bring a ponytail holder along so it's not just all there, but I forgot to do it today, so that's life." She smiled sheepishly, teeth barely showing.

"Oh...was it Umber? He actually brought me into the Negaverse, kind of, but we've never really talked...he's kind of imposing. He's really smart, but -- a little bit frightening." She gave an awkward little laugh before moving on. "But yes, we're soldiers of the Negaverse -- I know this sounds super silly, but basically the Senshi and Knights of the White Moon are reincarnated warriors from a thousand years ago...basically, they come from outer space, but they wiped out the rest of the galaxy's sentient life, so they're all reincarnating here. We're a military force that fights to protect Earth, although...I don't actually know why we're always named after minerals. It's kind of weird, but you know, naming convention is strange that way." As Chrysocolla continued to talk, her face became more animated, hands gesturing in the air.

"You're a Lieutenant, yes: there are four ranks. There's Lieutenants, Captains, Generals -- like Umber -- and General-Sovereigns, like Laurelite. You probably won't meet Laurelite, but she's really polite...! Your weapon will get better as you rank up, but I couldn't tell you how. You're stronger and faster than normal, and you could probably jump a story high or so. When you're powered up, nobody who knows you as a civilian will recognize you unless they see you transform...even though you look almost exactly the same, some magic keeps them from recognizing you." She took a deep breath, shoulders heaving. "Does that make any sense? I want to make sure you understand that before I go on to other stuff. I know it's kind of crazy, though!"

Chrysocolla looked delighted at Sylvite's offer, although the tinge of embarrassment still graced her features. "Oh, um -- I mean, if you want to! That'd be really nice..." She turned, fluffing her hair out and stretching her shoulders. (Having that much hair was a little heavy, even now; she couldn't picture what it had to be like for....say, Valeria, or Ochre. The poor things!)

"Umber's not cute," she returned, pouting as much as anyone could. "He's like, 29 or something...! That's twice my age! And his outfit's kind of silly, too...it wasn't so bad before, but now that he's a General...it's stupid-looking. He's just -- I know he wouldn't hurt us, as long as we're good, but...I don't know." Chrysocolla heaved a sigh, shoulders moving. "Something about him...unsettles me. His brother's kind of weird, too...kind of out of it. Something about the both of them is just...weird." He'd never been harsh to her. (But from what she knew, maybe he had been, once. Left her running scared.)

"The space thing is kind of silly, but I mean...if you think about it, isn't all of this? We're magical girls fighting the forces of evil, and they think they're doing the right thing, too. Um, as far as Senshi go: their auras feel kind of like Knights do, but -- they usually have outfits sort of like mine? A white bodice, bows, and they usually have tiaras. I'm a Senshi, too, unfortunately." Chrysocolla just looked annoyed at that. "Knights have weapons, and Senshi have magic -- their magic is over a specific 'thing' or something, I guess? Mine's over Moods, so my magic does weird things to people's emotions, but it's not very trustworthy." She tapped her fingers in a steady rhythm, biting her lip, looking for the other things she was absolutely sure she had to tell Sylvite -- helping out a new soldier was serious business, after all! "And, um, as far as weapons go...I don't really know, but...from what I've heard, you just kind of need to concentrate and 'reach out' for them sort of metaphorically? Lieutenants don't have very deadly weapons, but they should be there."

Chrysocolla shifted herself to make Sylvite's new task easier, hands playing with the zipper on her hoodie. (She was a little envious of Sylvite's outfit, actually; it'd probably be terrible in the summer, but for right now all that covered skin was probably a godsend! It was reasonable, she thought, to be a little jealous.) And if she'd been able to read the other girl's thoughts, she would have laughed at a box of hair stuff: it all vanished when she powered down, though.

"I sort of figured he wasn't from around here," she shrugged. "He has...a weird way of looking at things. And the guy who plays Iron Man isn't hot, he kind of looks like a grandfather! I don't want to think about my grandfather getting nasty, that's gross." Chrysocolla couldn't see Sylvite's face, so she had no response to the smirk. "The first time I met him, he made me cry, so...I know he didn't mean to, but I'm just a little scared of him, I guess." Her shoulders drooped. "He's always been nice to my sister, too, as far as I can tell..but, you know, whatever. He's really powerful, but I've just never seen him relaxed." Her fingers pushed the zipper back and forth rhythmically.

When Sylvite pushed her hair at her, she took it, twisting half-around to watch Sylvite -- and there they were! Weapons! ...well, inasmuch as any Lieutenant got a 'weapon', which. Really wasn't much. "I could show you my magic, if you'd like, but...it does weird things. So - but yeah, those are your weapons...!" Her smile was gentle, excited. "They're better than Pyrophanite's -- he's a jerk, by the way -- but he has a toy bus. And, um...they should come back every time you power up! Are they edible? And, um, by the way...when I'm powered down, my name is Poppy. I'm a sophomore too." There she went, throwing the name out there to see if Sylvite recognized it, to see if anything happened.

"...I haven't actually watched a lot of movies," Chrysocolla admitted hesitantly. "So I don't really know that many celebrities except the people everyone else does. Megan is kind of obsessed, though, I sit two tables away from her at lunch and I can hear her every few days...it's pretty impressive." She was happy to sit back and let Sylvite ramble, to let the other girl talk: it was hard, to start a conversation. Easier to listen, to nod, to smile when they kept going. Words were -- sometimes they stuck in her throat.

"Oh -- um -- okay! Just a second - " she crossed her hands over her chest, murmured "Warhol Mood Refraction," and held tight the spherical energy that fell into existence. She'd use it when Sylvite's discussion was over -- which might be in a minute, really -- but it was good to wait. "And no, I'm good...I try not to eat too much candy. I don't like sweet things that much." Chrysocolla had to giggle at that: here she was with a girl who was the very epitome of sweet, down to her weapons, and herself? She didn't like sugar.

"And that's me, yes...!" The recognition made her beam for a moment, eyes squeezing shut with the force of her smile. "Maybe we can try and meet up at lunch sometime? It'd be nice, to eat with someone...everyone's really loud most of the time." She hefted the ball up and down, taking Sylvite's outstretched hand and pressing it in - it dissolved through the fabric into sparkles, taking effect. "Please don't freak out or anything, um...my magic reverses emotions, so if you feel weird, it's normal...it doesn't last very long!"