Not only was it the time of year when the weather began its climb to blistering temperatures as spring segued into summer but it was also the hallmark month when kids were starting to get out of school for their two to three month break.
Despite the sun setting not quite an hour prior, Hekate could hear the sound of children's squeals as they ran down the hotel hallways from their parents. It almost made her feel sorry for the business men and women trying to sleep before an important meeting or interview; almost… but not quite.
Perched upon one of the top floor balconies she sat on the rail looking up at the looming clouds as her wraith hovered outside of windows only to disappear when one was found open. The Dark Mirror Senshi had little doubt that there were security cameras watching her but so far nobody has shown up yet; likely because they thought she was a guest and didn’t bother checking their system.
Hekate drew in a deep breath of warm dry air as she gazed upward towards the starless sky felt very foreboding. “Red skies at night, sailors delight.” She spoke in hushed tones. But these clouds were anything but red; instead the rolled in from the east; dark and angry.. Ready to burst at a moment's notice.
Minutes later the wraith emerged from a room three balconies down; its form looked less like a ghost and more like the creature she knew it was. “You should hurry, there’s a storm coming.” Hekate nodded in the direction as a rumbling sound of thunder roared in the distance. The wraith just looked at her with contempt, or uncaring; the things had a knack for emotionless stares.
He didn’t know exactly what to expect to find, after he’d spotted the thing from the ground, drifting around like… well he’d honestly thought it was smoke at first, and watched it drift about more before concluding that the fire alarms weren’t going to send people flooding into the street.
Still, he’d been alarmed, and managed to get inside (somehow) with some hastily muttered excuses that had involved strange looks and muttered comments about ‘some people’ and their personal preferences. Since he didn’t dare try and scale the damn balconies himself, he’d taken the stairs, (He didn’t even want to risk the elevator… in case it was actually a fire) and hoped, as he panted his way up the steps, that it was still going the same direction he was. And to his relief, as he looped up toward the door to the roof,, he started feeling it. Unfortunately… as it turned out, the roof overshot the mark, and after hoping he’d managed to find and disable any alarms, he found himself leaning over the edge of the raised lip of roof to stare -down- at one of the balconies, where a young woman was perched.
“OK. Fine.” He panted, deciding to just kind of lean there for a minute. She had a similar, strange feel to her as Laverna did, and he wasn’t sure if he should be alarmed or just expect a show. “OK so… you gotta tell me how you got there. And then you gotta tell me what -that- is.” He demanded, downward, pointing vaguely at the disappearing hint of wraith.
“Also I probably set off the roof alarm. Or I’m not ruling it out. Does this place have a roof alarm?”
Hekate remained still for a moments time, hoping beyond reason that whomever the order aura above her belonged to just happened to be talking to someone else. But as the seconds dragged on she knew that was not the case; as the Senshi of Jinxes, when was luck ever really on her side.
“I have no idea…” She finally responded “ I haven’t been up there yet to find out.”
Swinging her legs back over onto the right side of the balcony Hekate opened the sliding door “Go back.” She whispered quietly to the wraith and it obeyed without even batting an eye. It’s former transparent form it had taken on upon being summoned was far more physical rendering it more susceptible to being destroyed should the man, or boy (honestly she couldn’t tell from where she was at), decide to attack. It’s back turned towards her the wraith hovered across the bedroom towards the full length mirror mounted on the back of the bathroom door then disappeared the same way it had arrived.
Instead of following it and mirror walking away she shut the door again since she wasn’t technically paying for the room; it was just a means to get here, and the order presence above her seemed more inclined to talk which was a far cry from the last time she ran into one of them.
“I don’t hear anyone coming down the hall so I think you’re safe.” Hekate commented with a shrug. Saddy, given the wall height of an average room she knew he was out of range of her attack otherwise she would have summoned the mist as a precautionary measure before joining him on the room.
“Care to move over a bit?” With her own bout of clumsiness it would be far less dangerous for her to jump vertically than to go from balcony to balcony to the fire escape mounted to the side of the building.
Wallop held up a ‘one minute’ finger for a second, and then obligingly scooted over, though with a degree of theatre as far as his state of exhaustion, then gestured at the open rooftop near by.
“Go nuts. I’d quote the famous Indigo Montoya but goddamn. ******** the stairs. I mean stairs over playing goddamn Cirque de Soleil and coming up by Balcony but ******** the stairs. I mean goddamn…”
“You’re uh…” He tapped the edge of the roof with one hand. “Damn sorry. Not Negamaniac but the other guys right? So what’s the deal with uh…. Casper. I thought the damn building was on fire or something.”
Once her feet touched down on solid ground Hekate took an additional two steps away from him to maintain some semblance of distance for safety sake. “No sir, I’m not. And to be honest I’ve never had the opportunity to actually meet one either.” Which was a feat in and of itself considering she first awoke about two years ago if not a little longer.
“And Casper, as you call it, is not a ghost, it’s my wraith. Or rather it was until I sent it back home.” There was a tinge of possessiveness in her tone when she claimed it to be hers but faded quickly after she admitted it was gone. “Don’t worry,” Hekate waved her hand dismissively. “Contrary to popular belief it isn’t nearly as dangerous as those youma that keep popping up around the city.” At least she had actually yet to see it do physical harm to anyone.
“What about you? What’s your name and who are you a knight of? I don’t recognize the symbol.” She asked with a raised brow. One way or another she had to get a question in of her own even if it was a shot in the dark; he could in fact be a senshi for all she knew but his aura felt somehow explicitly different than the last order individual she had a run in with.
While she waited for his reply the senshi of Jinxes crossed her arms in front of her; hugging the sheer fabric to her body. At Hekate’s side her thumb ran over her fingertips which tingled with the itch to use her magic first before he got the drop on her; last time did not end well and she didn’t really feel inclined to fall off a rooftop again.
“Me?” He stepped back and spread his arms, figuring she could enjoy the laugh at the full get up. The more people thought he was harmless, the more he figured they’d be less likely to chase him, and he remembered Gadolinite’s magic pretty well. “Nether Wallop, Page of Earth.”
Hey so she knew what knights were, that was a plus. “Bear with me I haven’t memorized that peasant skit from the Holy Grail yet to go with the look. What’s a Wraith do?”
The DMC felt… not Negalomaniac like but still… not quite.. Right, and it made him wonder what the Wraith had done to the sleeping guests before she’d sent it ‘home’. “You’re the second Mirror senshi I’ve met, and I think my count of Nega’s is… I dunno. Five? Haven’t counted the ones that didn’t kill me.”
He flashed a wry, thin smile. It was technically an exaggeration… but kind of… not… the more he understood it. Body home… no one in it. And no idea where ‘he’ had been in the interim.
“I got better.” He added, by way of trying to make it a joke. “And it even came with a title, and a time share.”
The gesture of wrapping her arms around herself made her look cold, and the wind was picking up from the impending rain, but he was hesitant to offer her his wrap. It would have been the nice move, but he wasn’t sure nice was on the table.
“A time share?” Her tone suggested she had no idea what he was talking about but no follow up question came. Instead Hekate simply shrugged. Whatever that means…
The way he spoke and joked made his presence a bit less intimidating; almost as if she were talking to an old acquaintance that she hadn’t seen in five years. More like catching up, less like an interrogation.
For a moment she stood there pondering how to answer his question before deciding there really was no ‘nice’ way to put it. “Before I agree to explain why I’m here or anything having to do with my wraith you need to at least let me explain myself before you decide to crucify me or throw me off the building. Deal?”
Historically speaking, most like him chose the option to attack first ask questions later, assuming they ever got to the Q & A part of the evening before one of them disappeared. More often than not the White Moon Senshi had a tendency to automatically assuming she is doing something evil, granted the witch outfit probably didn’t help matters either, and tried to dispatch her wraith before even offering a courtesy ‘what’s up?’ or ‘what are you doing?’.
“It’s a rundown cottage I can only go to on a schedule. Sounds kinda timeshare to me.” He shrugged. “Go for it.” He added leaning his hip against the roof and trying to make his posture casual and relaxed, non threatening, though he wondered if he should be so close to the edge himself. Laverna was nice, but she was also flexible as hell, and it was hard to know who was and wasn’t out to kill him.
“I mean not going to lie… ‘wraith’ does not conjure images of it flying through windows to put chocolates under people's pillows or fold their towels into whimsical animals… but I’m all ears.”
If he had the talent, he’d have wiggled his ears, but alas, it was one that had escaped him. Damn he could have gotten a few laughs from that otherwise useless skill over the years though.
“First off, I’ve never killed anyone or hurt them, my magic doesn’t work like that; if they got injured it was likely their own fault. Same goes for my wraith; while I can’t speak for anyone else. mine have never hurt anyone. At absolute worse I have made a few people pass out on the sidewalk; BUT for good reason.” Hekate paused a moment to assess his body language before continuing when she felt it was safe to do so.
“Usually I go hang out around bars or clubs; only taking from those who are clearly too intoxicated to drive yet are making a v-line for their car or you know, drunkin guys who just don’t take no for an answer and you know…” She shrugged figuring it didn’t need more explaining. The point being is normally she only chose targets who were either a danger to themselves or others. “Before you ask ‘why’ it’s because there is enough stupid crap going on around Destiny city. We don’t need civilians out making it worse.” At least that is how she justified powering up; felt a bit like the movie Minority report; stepping in because she thinks someone is about to do something dumb or dangerous regardless of their actual intent.
“As for why I’m here, I honestly needed a break from the loud music and just wanted someplace quiet to be. My wraith was still semi-transparent when I sent it away; which is why you thought it was smoke. It just means it hasn’t collected its full capacity. Considering I’ve been out here for about an hour it’s safe to say it only took enough to quiet the kids or restless sleepers so they could sleep more soundly as I told it to.” Whether it actually obeyed she had no idea but it flitted in and out of several rooms unseen rather than completing its overall objective in one.
“OK so pardon me for not being in the advanced placement class on this stuff but unfortunately the stylish duds do not come with an ‘magical vigilante for dummies’ guide.” Wallop gestured with his hands, which swept around as though trying to conduct an elaborate interpretive dance to his confusion and concerns. “...How… does this whole ‘they’re passed out but not dead’ thing work? Because I’ve pretty much seen the ‘literally rip the soul out of your body’ thing and been shot at with some magical arrows and s**t and had undead monsters try and stomp me into a crater so…” His hands wobbled in a ‘you have to get where I’m coming from’ gesture.
“I mean christ of course there’s stupid s**t going down. People do stupid s**t without magic. Throw magic into the equation and we do stupid stuff faster, higher, and with flashier effects that don’t have to be put in post editing. Welcome to humanity. Individually sometimes ok, collectively a little like being shoved in a bag of chloroform and rocks and shaken vigorously.”
Hekate took a wary step back. “Maybe so, but to answer your question...What I mean by ‘passed out’ is exactly what it sounds like. They’re asleep. Like when you work out too much or haven’t eaten in a while and eventually you just get low enough on energy that you fall asleep.” At least that’s what she assumed happened; she never went back to check on the person after they collapsed in a heap on the ground. The only indication that it was the case was the fact that there were no breaking news headlines of someone dying on the street where she left their prone body for anyone to find.
She looked… nervous. Or maybe guilty, and he couldn’t figure out why she would look nervous about him and his stick… well… ok he was getting a little better. Getting the jump on Phryg had been a small boost to his ego, like water on dry cracked earth…. But her behavior made him wary, though he tried hard to make sure his posture stayed loose, comical even.
“And what happens to it then?”
And what happened to them? What happened to the people who passed out someplace less safe than a hotel room? What happened if they had medical problems, missed medication or so forth? You called a cop on drunks, or an uber, you didn’t pass them out nose first on the ground in a city where someone might be happy to scrape up your leftovers and make sure they never woke again. “I mean what do you need to steal from them for anyway? I mean what… I don’t get it. I don’t get the starseed stealing I don’t get the… wraith draining people. I don’t get it. What does it -accomplish-? Or is it just like… I dunno collecting marbles? “Hey I’ll swap your spangled Taxi Driver for my Overtired Business Man”.”
He parodied, nose crinkling as he tried to figure it out. It just… it just rubbed at him like sand. Didn’t start out too bad but the more it carved the same tracks, the more it became raw.
What was it for? What did it accomplish, how did they justify it?
“Woah woah, back up. We don’t steal starseeds. That’s the Negaverse not us. I don’t even think any of us are capable of doing such a thing.” She’d heard rumors a year ago or so but had never seen the act in person. “And I have no idea why they take them or for what purpose.”
“The White Moon Senshi have their moon, you have your timeshare…, we have the mirror and they have their special place in space I’m guessing. I can’t go to yours, you can’t go to mine and neither of us can go to theirs. What happens once they teleport away is as much your guess as mine.” Hekate felt uneasy with how this conversation was going and jumped on the defensive real quick.
“As for why we take energy, i’m not entirely sure to be honest. Once the wraith disappears it’s gone; I’ve never summoned the same one twice. They don’t talk or else I’d have asked what it was used for.” Which is why she often felt like a fool when someone walked by side glancing at her on the street completely missing the wraith in the shadows or hidden behind a bush. Likely assuming that she had some sort of mental condition or simply enjoyed talking to herself. Neither was the case of course.
“The person who made me what I am wasn’t exactly forthcoming with a whole lot of details. Perhaps that makes me a bit naive for blindly following orders but let's be honest, isn’t that what any of us are doing?” Nobody she’s met thus far has any knowledge or insight as to why they were fighting in the first place or what started this whole mess.
“I don’t have orders, I’m just looking for answers.” Wallop fired back. “And I didn’t say you did, but I know people do. How can you just… go out and take energy from people and not have the slightest idea where it’s going?” He reached back and tangled his fingers in his hair with frustration. “I just… I don’t get it.”
Maybe it was just him, he couldn’t fathom that kind of conformity, never had been able to. There had never been that kind of ‘well everyone else is’.
“I’m powering up because what if I’m the only thing between someone and someone collecting starseeds, that’s my choice. The stick didn’t come with orders, I’ve never felt an obligation to power up, and I could power down tomorrow and never do it again, ‘cept I know what happens out here, and what happened to people when there wasn’t anyone there…”
He was failing to keep his tone casual and light, and he knew it,but he was too damn… everything not to, so he let it be barbed and mocking, like he’d done to goad the ones that drove him nuts in school until he had to poke them senseless to find out -why-.
“But you know hey I mean if ‘well someone gave me a fancy outfit and a spooky minion and told me to’, that sure seems to work out historically… for the kind of people we write comics about punching.”
Hekate shifted uncomfortably where she stood only a few feet away from the Squire. Her eyes narrowed and gaze hardened at his perceived threat. Figured he’d be just like the rest; what was the point in trying to explain, they all came to the same conclusion anyway. Whatever…
Before he had the chance to turn all vigilante on her she extended her right arm, palm up towards him as if offering him something but nothing was in her hand. Under her breath she whispered the name of her attack “Hekate Jinx” then dropped her arm back down to her side.
“I think this conversation is over.” She commented casually knowing full well where this was going as it has happened before and likely would happen again after they parted ways. The need to explain herself further fell flat at his heightened frustration at her last set of answers.
Well he should have figured Laverna was the exception to the rule…. And probably Titanite too. He did not miss the arm gesture, and if he’d learned anything from Gadolinite… it was not to trust senshi when they made weird hand gestures and muttered s**t, and he waved desperately at the hard to see purple smoke where it was more visible in the glowing lights of the hotel, not that it seemed to be helping as he tried to back away from it.
“Oh you bet it’s over.” He narrowed his eyes, jaw set and gripped his staff, as the smoke kept trailing after him like… well it was kind of like the neighbor's bbq where no matter where you sat your face was full of mosquitoes and smoke. He also remembered being pressured to hand off his perfectly scorched marshmallows to the younger neighbors ‘because they were too little to do their own’ but that was an entirely different set of bad memories.
“Scoot boot, before I tip your teacup, Heka-tea” He quipped, warningly. “Or I’m gonna wreck your Sunday school bullshit image of shepherds forever.”
The Senshi of Jinxes snorted in an almost undignified manner. “Just please don’t tell me you have a thing for sheep.” she responded in a tone that challenged him as much as if saying ‘try me, I dare you’. “That would just be unfortunate and ultimately weird…”
“Anyway, word of advice, you may want to sit down before you hurt yourself.” His comment earlier about balcony jumping left the distinct impression that his grace, or lack thereof, likely to a degree matched her own.
Despite how amusing it was to watch the squire dodge her smoke she did not wait around idly for it to catch up and instead sat on the rooftop ledge, where she initially climbed up, and swing her legs over the edge.
“Nice to know you’re as well informed on that as you are on your own cause, City Girl!” He shouted after her. “And because I’m pretty sure you’re too thick to get the point: I’ve seen better informed fire hydrants!”
He yelled after her, trying to figure out how far he had to go before this wore of or went away. Maybe he should cut his losses and try and port back to his thistle covered refuge? Wait… would he come right back here? He hadn’t come back exactly the same spot last time, and he wasn’t sure how that worked. Something to do with global rotation? Magic being… wiibbly wobbly? UGH. Screw this magic s**t. Absolutely screw it.
Hekate paused in the doorway somewhat taken aback by his comparison then looked up in his general unseen direction with the most perplexed look on her face. She blinked several times then shook her head letting his comment roll off her like bead of water. “You’re in idiot” She replied under her breath with an eloquent roll of her eyes before shutting the door and locking it behind her.
Fire hydrant… she mentally scoffed while stepping through the full length mirror in the hotel room and out the one in her room.The surface rippled then stilled only a second after she had powered down.
For a brief moment Sage entertained the thought of calling the hotel manager on site and informing them that they have a prowler, or a potential stalker, on their rooftop just to give the squire a hard time. What stopped her though was that, annoying as it was, he did have a point; she wasn’t as well informed as she should be. Too long has it been since she had actually had any sort of conversation with any other Dark Mirror Senshi something that needed to be remedied sooner rather than later.
Regardless of that fact it did little to nothing to diminish the fact that he was an a*****e just like the others she had encountered. Thankfully he didn’t have the opportunity to take a swing like senshi with the green outfit.
Sage fell over backwards onto her bed with a disgruntled sigh before reaching over to her nightstand and picking her phone up again. “Okay Google, what’s the phone number for the Best Western in Destiny City”...
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