Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sailor Altair

A look to the right was followed by a look to the left. Then, Altair darted from the shadows cast by one tree to those cast by another several yards ahead. There were too many people taking naps in this park today, at benches, at picnic tables, on blankets, and so forth. It didn't seem so odd when someone who looked like a student seemed to be using their book as a pillow on a picnic blanket. And then, she grew increasingly bewildered as she passed several benches shielded from the sun by overhead branches and also each with a figure who seemed to have decidedly dozed off. Perhaps this day happened to be deemed a nice one for an outdoor nap by multiple park-goers. However, she felt pretty sure that she'd be right in guessing that the picnicker she had happened upon minutes earlier during her walk in her civilian form hadn't taken a seat at a table to sleep on an open takeout plate of what appeared to be yet untouched burgers and fries. She characteristically had trouble being heard or noticed when it came to trying to address or wake up napping or sleeping individuals including her own relatives such as cousins and nieces or nephews as well as her colleagues and so forth. However, since despite not responding to her, she noticed the person napping soundly at said table in the leafy shade of a tree was taking steady, deep breathes likely inhaling the aroma of their fries subconsciously beneath them, she decided circumstances were not life threatening as of yet. And so, she then proceeded to take on her senshi form in a hidden corner of the general area and focus on as soon as possible locating and intervening with the cause she suspected to be behind this occurrence, the source of the mark of Chaos she was sensing now to likely be somewhere within the vicinity.

Rick

The workout gym with a basketball court that he had just now finished volunteering at for a youth event was right at the edge of this park and Rick had ended up deciding to head home through the scenic route. This was quite a scene alright. It did not take him long to find the number of people asleep to be highly suspicious. And when a memory of being targeted by an unknown monster flashed through his mind suddenly, he began debating whether he should aim to keep walking with a front that he was completely oblivious to anything out of the ordinary around him or if he should move towards home in the shadows, perhaps not unlike that girl ahead of him hurriedly moving from one tree to another.

Or maybe, was she behind this weirdness? Looks can be deceiving as to who could be responsible for sinister plots, right? What was she doing anyway? And, what was he doing? He should not have taken to the shadows as he had now just done and should probably not be sneaking after her, following her to wherever she was headed. And yet, no matter how he repeatedly told himself to go home, run there even, and not follow who could be a deranged criminal genius during their after school hours, still, he continued to tail said maybe-notorious student's tracks in the shadows.

Rick

Where did she go?? According to his chasing vision, Rick felt close to sure that it had only been a brief second or a few at most that he had lost sight of the girl he was following after a tree blocked his view. Had she realized he was there? These were questions that had occurred to him right before the shock he had undergone how long ago now; a handful of seconds right after the surprising encounter; or was it a number of minutes now????

It was a fast occurrence at that. His gaping mouth had been quickly covered, he had somehow nodded what he supposed now was taken as panicked comprehension on his part of an unsent text message that was placed before his eyes and then he was swiftly left alone.

And he was still currently alone now as far as he was aware, not having moved from his place after his crouching form had stumbled back against a tree. His thought processes that seemed to have returned from running for the hills at being successfully ambushed into frantic retreat was now gradually contributing to filling the blankness in his head. Was Destiny City full of magical, superhuman beings?! The text said: 'It's dangerous rick get out of here.' Wait, how did she know his name?!?!

Sailor Altair

Altair looked back for a moment and was relieved that it seemed she had left Rick far enough behind her. She continued to dart carefully onwards in the shadows, striving not to lose track of the Chaos signal. Should she try the tactic she had used on Rick if there's an opportunity to; dropping down from a tree branch overhead?

She next reminded herself of the consideration that perhaps she should fully concentrate first on locating, and so meaning catch sight of, the owner of the Chaos signal. But first, upon noticing that she still held her senshi phone in one hand, she paused in her hidden spot right now to put her phone back in her pocket. Her nerves were somewhat less apparent nowadays, but like now it was still fairly clear as her hands fumbled in trying to catch up with her mind on what she wanted to do exactly. The text she had typed to Rick flashed before her and as she absentmindedly began backspacing, more alertness on what her hands were in the middle of was as though zapped into her abruptly: She had used his name! She began hoping frantically that he had missed this detail in the message she gave him. Though, thankfully, she eventually managed to return her phone to her pocket as she had originally intended to quickly.

And then, woah, there was a suspicious individual within her sights before she knew it, someone giving off a Chaos signal! Was Rick really a safe distance back from this area?

"That that sphere-shaped glow you just stored on your person, w-what is its light source? Did you perhaps take it from someone else? Have you collected more than one?" breaking her lurking, heart-pounding silence after a thread of time, Altair directed her questions at Reinerite as she stepped out of shadows and gradually began lessening the distance between them cautiously, a hastily decided on attempt at preventing the targeting of further victims off the top of her head, one she had not thought through thoroughly indeed.

Sailor Altair

"Um, well well, f-from," Altair cleared her throat as she stood her ground. She acknowledged to herself that she definitely still had a tendency to draw out parts of her words and also repeat some here and there while trying to lessen the occurrence of the latter whether from nervousness, hesitation, or other.

"If I'm not mistaken, then then you are a part of Chaos," Altair attempted her response again, "and considering past experiences, I suspect you may be involved with regards to the mysterious mysterious fatigue that has taken hold of a notable some in this park."

Rick

Was this the way home? Should he try and resume tailing that costumed girl after all? But, if he went after her again, he possibly might end up running from a weird creature like he had one night not long in the past, right? And, how did she know his name??

He took in a surprised breath suddenly and jumped backward, his back hitting the side of a tree and causing him to shift abruptly with the momentum so that he veered a little sideways. In front of him, he saw who had caught him off guard: a cat.

He laughed at himself and then spoke to the feline amicably, "There may be a weird creature, a witch, or both, or multiple in this park. You may want to think twice about going this way."

Why was he starting a conversation with the cat? And yet, despite a part of him wondering this, Rick went on to say more anyway.

"Or, are you part of a witch and cat team on your way to a fight or something?" Rick grinned at how ridiculous he was finding his state of mind right now.

Sailor Altair

"While," Altair swallowed at the feeling of there seemingly being a lump in her throat before pressing on, "while I somewhat comprehend the soundness of your words, I find it advisable that you consider opting to listen as well to what you are imparting to me."

She could hear her own heartbeat loudly now, which muffled the sound of her own speech in addition to the weight that seemed to be filling her mind and clouding more coherent alertness apart from reacting to the tension building within her by bracing her muscles for readily beginning any motions if a fight suddenly erupted as the past of months after months seemed to be inclined to cycle. "The induced fatigue could jeopardize the health of victims."

Rick

Rick had been smilingly and watchfully keeping still as he internally debated the possibility if the cat would mind him reaching out a hand in offer to softly scratch the top the cat's head.

However, his smiling statuesque state was unexpectedly prolonged when he was taken aback by the cat answering him, talking, responding with statements and a question. Was he dreaming? When did he get home and fall asleep? Or is some kind of organization like the Men in Black based in Destiny City, maybe the IiC (Individuals in Costumes)? Maybe his brain was trying some sort of sleep and dream therapy because he has been bottling up and keeping the weird, supernatural type of encounter he had not long after moving to Destiny City to himself. He probably should have spoken to a few people about that, warned friends, something along those lines that he hoped was better late than never after today; it likely may not be healthy that he hasn't tried to talk to someone about that incident, given how crazy it had been. Maybe this was a bizarre opportunity for such therapy through a scenario conjured up in his knocked out imaginings that seemed to have taken influences from some of the stories he'd read upon request during bouts of babysitting his young relatives here and there over the years.

"Not long after I moved here, I was chased by this monster that looked to me to be a human head moving with spider feet," Rick began to inform the cat as he curiously crouched then sat as well during this present exchange. "Then some kind of light appeared and reduced the monster to dust particles upon contact."

Rick ran a hand across the back of his head, just in case this situation may turn out to have been brought about by a bloody blow to his skull that he might have yet to have noticed.

Nope, there was no bump or blood from his momentary assessment.

"I didn't see a monster today. But just minutes ago I did meet a girl with, hm, red ribbons, or rather bows would be the more accurate term; there's two on the costume she's wearing. She jumped down from a tree like some kind of high-tech ninja and told me with the screen of her phone something like: go home Rick it's dangerous. How did she know my name???? Was she on her way to shoot lights at monsters maybe??"

Is Destiny City actually some kind of giant prank movie set?!

He rubbed the back of neck with one palm after realizing he had ended up rambling away about his puzzled thoughts, shook his head wearily for a moment before looking around to seemingly regain enough of his bearings location-wise, and then smiled again with amusement at internally identifying his own probable, somewhat-newfound lunacy as he pointed at the general direction he had last seen the superhuman girl headed. "And, uh, yeah, she was going that way."

Sailor Altair

She sharply took in a shaky breath as she lifted her arms up hastily to serve as a makeshift shield while her entire being hummed with a mixture of emotions that at this moment narrowed down to having every frantic intention of keeping herself as aware as she could muster of the contender and the projectile.

Though she had moved somehow in position with an angling rotation of her torso to one side, the latter of the two offensive threats had made contact with her upper arm and she winced though she desperately resisted the pull on her attention of the painful spark brought about by being hit with the globe. "Scalpel scalpel," her voice shook in this failed attempt of hers to get her reflexes and coordination to cooperate with an execution of her magic spell. And Altair found herself tensing further in bracing herself while she inwardly screamed at herself to get it together.

It occurred to a part of her that though she had yet to consistently take up her cousin's offer of guest attendance as one of the privileges of membership at the martial arts academy after her work hours and not just when her days off coincided with class days, she seriously needed to reconsider her previous logic and buck up, find and gather more energy and such resources to invest in being a more regular combat student. She had only heard so far of the sparring practice days there were in the curriculum that she had yet to by chance make it to in the times she made appearances to date. And though her cousin has been imparting knowledge of how to execute the forms and the accompanying practical applications, clearly she was realizing the hard way right now that sparring practice would probably, surely go a long way in aiding her when faced with such circumstances as this.

Altair hasn't been powering up as often as her cousin as of late, yet how had she made it out of that war in Negaspace when she was fumbling the way she was now? Is her fumbling now also partly because she hasn't fought agents as much as youma?

Rick

What inspirational material was behind this likely dream?? "She's, I'm, you mean, my superpowered self is just dormant right now??" Rick asked through a wide grin of thorough amusement at the sudden introduction to such a notion. Then, he cleared his throat as he reached out slowly with one hand, commencing a softly scratching motion on one of the cat's shoulders.

"So, I can give my superpowered identity a wake up call," his tone took on a mix of seriousness and playfulness as he had spoken the statement a slight bit more deeply in sound than his usual speech. However, the next few beats of the moment held recollections of the scare he had experienced in the wake of the part human-like head, part spider monster and the similar sort of feeling that usually followed waking from (other) disturbing visual concoctions of sleep. He determined that at the very least, he wanted to wake up with a sense of victory or something along those lines rather than the sort of emotions on the other end of the shared spectrum. Dreams were supposed to go the way you willed them to, right?? His voice was back to normal as he went on more calmly as his affable self, "I want to know more about super me; please fill me in: how do I shoot lights? Can you teach me? Then, I can go with you and help fend off the hungry monster threat that's on the loose in Destiny City."

Rick considered again that it was either he who needed his head examined or Destiny City that needed to be checked for toxins or something of the sort. How was all this mysteriousness possible?!

"Also, I'm Rick. And, you are?" Curiously, Rick waited for the cat to respond again. In actuality his mind was still insistent on questions such as: Will the cat really talk again? What name will this possible dream of mine come up with for the cat's name?

Rick

He listened and watched intently, giving a nod of dream world understanding here and there.

He had paused for a few added seconds when a smartphone and maybe a magic wand or the magic key or both appeared before he lifted the instrument he was receiving instruction about.

Was he supposed to point the bulkier end of said key, or wand or wand-key or Liryn mentioned it was a pen if he was remembering correctly, at the sky? Did there happen to be a manual and dictionary or likewise that they could refer to in that smartphone he saw? And what sort of feeling was he supposed to express? A feeling of seriousness, those who wanted to do MiB protective services type of stuff had to have some extent of seriousness to their mindsets, right? Ah, maybe he can try a similar approach as calling out a basketball play or also something like when he holds up the ball to throw into the court except without any loudness involved; yes, serious and aiming for success, ninja-like, something like that.

"Nauheima Power, Make-Up," after a deep breath once back on his feet, Rick raised his hand that was holding the pen overhead in all seriousness, courtesy of basketball playing experiences, with his words.

And, he transformed.

From his hands to the rest of his newly attired form, Rick's gazed silently open-mouthed at his transformed self before that silence from him was broken by him saying, "There's magic inside me. Liryn, uh, thank you, I really never knew to expect any of all this in any way. So, uh, what can I do now? Is there, uh, a magic spell for me to use at a target?" A brief, nervous chuckle of confusion escaped him after his verbal sputtering.

This was already for sure turning out to be some dream; it is a dream, right, a really realistic more-than-4D-ish dream?

Sailor Altair

"Ugh!" The struck spot was struck again with a delivered punch and was very likely going to be bruised for a yet to be confirmed amount of time. However, bruise duration was the least of Altair's worries right now.

She stumbled when struck the second time and nearly tumbled completely. Fortunately for her, she had barely managed to keep on her feet. Then, she lifted her hands from their stabilizing position on the ground and held her fists up again in what she hoped was a more adequate other aim at a passable sparring stance.

However, though she now grasped at the resolution to avoid getting hit again as much as she could manage, she still struggled with the idea of taking offensive action towards the agent she was in combat with. She willed herself to keep her eyes fixed on her opponent and endeavored to analyze what options for next courses of action she had as she mentally told herself repeatedly to stay alert and ready for executing further and better movements in this battle.

Rick

Inside a part of his dream mind, Rick, now Nauheima, had to admit that he was laughing his head off; really, where was he getting this stuff, dandelions, a magical smartphone, what else?!

Outwardly, his dream self was only smiling widely as he listened attentively to the information Liryn was imparting to him as another part of his mind marveled at how oddly real the smartphone felt in his hold. He would nod here and there as he paid attention and yet another part of him would repeat the information mentally. When he repeated the magic spell's words in his mind, he had resisted the temptation to look around him and see if he summoned any fruits. And, he also noted to himself that he should probably research dandelions. No changes like fruits dropping from the sky suddenly registered in his low key observations so he assumed that he had to be serious with a magic spell declaration in the same manner that he had magically changed his outfit.

His features' smile took on a more serious air as Nauheima gave his reply to Liryn though, "I'll go, too. My magic and I could be helpful as a distraction or something." If Liryn was headed into a situation even a little bit similar to that of his with a part-human, part-spider creature, he wanted to back his newfound mentor up even if this was all just a chapter of his highly questionable sleep world tales.

Sailor Altair

She should aim to refrain from so easily revealing her weaknesses, right? Altair inwardly told herself that perhaps she needed to do intensive research on the art of warfare and such. Because apparently, she was realizing more and more that this war and war in general were far, far more complicated than what she gathered during previous magical experiences' realizations.

She could feel that she had probably almost twisted her ankle earlier and her upper arm was screaming at her, questioning how in the world she had gotten her pain sensors there all fired up. Altair stood her ground though and was resisting the call of her physical discomforts to be addressed. She was still mentally scrambling for what courses of action she should decide on.

And then, she queried in an attempt to buy time for her thoughts and then reasoned to herself that this, an attempt at stalling and information-gathering, could be related to tactical aspects as well maybe, "Why, why are you targeting civilians?"

Sailor Altair

Altair could feel her pulse accelerate in alarm as she transitioned into frantic motion, her whole being not keen on the prospect of accepting injury. She jumped off to one side and into a rolling arc on the ground.

That move felt notably different from executing it on a smooth dance floor, but Altair didn't chance a look to see if she had done a number on her legs and earned herself a handful of scratches to go along with the prickly sensations now distributed most prominently on one of her knees.

This time, she did endeavor to balance momentarily on one foot as she rolled her other ankle a few inches off the ground. Again, she assumed a sparring stance. Then, she hissed softly in the next instant before resuming silence again. Her uninjured hand began to rub the pained part of the upper arm of its counterpart gingerly. And more puzzled thoughts were added to the far too large sum of such in her mind as she kept her vision trained on her opponent. Should she try to speak again? A part of her though recognized the probability that she was likely not to be provided with answers toward clearing up her questions and that this may be the case in similar future encounters as well.

Nauheima

"You're welcome," Nauheima proceeded beside Liryn, following the lead of his mentor's steps.

"So, are auras like GPS signals, Liryn?" Nauheima asked one of the queries he managed to pull from his thoughts, his mind suddenly full of puzzle pieces he for the most part didn't know how to put into coherent speech right off the bat while he also tried to test himself if he could sense his aura.

But as they made their way through the area, it was two auras a distance away that caught his focus. "It seems to me that there is a chaos aura and an order aura that isn't mine at the same place somewhere around here?"