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 Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 9:53 pm
It seems like a normal day, considering all the odd happenings you can usually expect from Destiny City. The weather’s great, the people are tolerable, and everything’s going fine. You are out, enjoying the good fortune, when you catch a familiar face in the crowd: yours. They are wearing your clothes, your face, and you see them for only a second but a feeling of dread floods through you. They smirk, like they know they’ve won—and then you lose them in the crowd. No matter how hard you look, you can’t find any sight of them, but a feeling of dread and being watched follows you for the rest of the day. Acubens had powered up a lot after the botanical garden fiasco. If only because it was easier than dealing with civilian life at that moment. She knew what to do as Acubens. Rhona was... harder. Way harder. Acubens had a deep, undying love for the court that took her in when her own court left her at every possible turn. Acubens would lay down her life for that court. Acubens wanted to protect and serve that court for as long as she drew breath. Rhona... Rhona was still a new animal to her. And it didn't help that Acubens was quickly coming to understand that she had accidentally built up a life as Acubens with a side gig as Rhona... it should have been the other way around. Even when she looked at the friends that she had as civilians, they were all Court members. She didn't know anyone outside of that circle. In that respect, at least, Lavender had been right. Even if that was the only thing that she had hit dead on. The rest... Acubens felt her blood boil. Her mind wandered back to the look of fear on Lavender's face when she was trying to help. And then back further to that damned ******** "meeting" in the cafe. All they did was talk about Lavender's problems and how ******** hurt Lavender was. And while that was all well and good, when Rhona had tried to talk about how she felt... it got thrown back in her face. And she spent the next month feeling like a s**t human being for it. Because what kind of person chews people up and spits them out like Lavender had said that they did? What kind of person lives only for the glory and not for anything else? Acubens would like to have known because it sure as s**t wasn't her. She didn't know much about Rhona, but she knew that. She knew that she opened her home up when someone needed it. She knew that she supported those in her life with words and gestures and time. Acubens growled deep in her throat and leaped from her perch atop a small office building and landed deftly on the pavement before. She needed a walk. Irritation was lighting a fire in her nerves that she was having significant difficulty mitigating... like ants marching up and down under her skin. The sensation made her march with more purpose than usual, or perhaps more aggression. Sharp clicks punctuated the silence of the early twilight around her. Not a soul lingered out after the sun began to vanish after the attack on the garden, and she rather liked it that way. It gave her a chance to brood and sulk and be generally angry at the world. Later she would come to a rational state and understand that she and Lavender had different goals. Different priorities. And above all, different personalities. And that what Lavender said and did was out of fear, the same as her own actions and words. But that was a task for calm Acubens to handle. Angry Acubens was out sniffing for negabitches to punch in the face for the sin of existing. Except... she found someone else. Well, actually, she found herself. Acubens was standing about five feet away from an exact mirror image of herself. The woman looked about as surprised as she did for a moment before the expression gave way to a smug smirk. The other her crossed her arms over her chest and made a small sound, looking her up and down. Apperently unhappy with what she saw, she tsk'ed her and turned on her heel, walking away. "Hey," Acubens finally croaked when she found her voice again. "Hey hold up a minute. Hey b***h, I'm talking to you!" The woman didn't turn around. She only kept walking, and like a mirage, the more Acubens tried to get to her, the farther away she got. When she finally turned down another road, Acubens was sure she had gotten her but by the time she caught up... the other her was just... gone... Acubens looked around, her mouth open slack, but found nothing. Nothing except for the chilling feeling of eyes on her and the certainty that something dreadful was about to happen.
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2017 1:32 am
Sinope's situation was, in many ways, similar to Acubens. In other ways, it was the exact opposite. He did not possess the extreme devotion that the eternal had for their court, but he was certainly glad he had awakened as a Dark Mirror Senshi as opposed to any other sort of powered being. As Sinope, he felt strong and free; a greater version of his usual self. But perhaps that was why he had also been finding himself in greater trouble of varying kinds as of late. Everything had its price, after all, and the benefits of being a senshi were no exception.
The teenager behind Sinope's glamour - Jack - thought he had known himself well enough, but his experiences as his magical alter ego had proven otherwise. He had considered himself smart enough to stay out of trouble, but his increased abilities had only tempted him to put them to better use in reckless ways. Perhaps he had thought that if he was stronger as Sinope, he could handle more dangerous situations and bask in the triumph of having survived things that he, as Jack, never would have been able to. What he had failed to factor in was the fact that while physical danger was one thing, emotional and mental hazards were another. Sailor - no, even Super Sailor Sinope had no better defense against those than just plain old Jack.
Once upon a time, he wouldn't have ever thought those things to be threats. Jack kept himself emotionally aloof from others and was careful to keep avoid attachments that he wasn't ready to sever at a moment's notice. Sinope, on the other hand, got careless. He found himself respecting, acknowledging, and even concerning himself over others like Sadalsuud, Puck, and Alya. He had reasoned that it didn't really count because they were all using secret identities so that in itself was a barrier against growing too close because they had an excuse to not learn too much about each other. Furthermore, with as sporadic and unpredictable as things were as a senshi, he doubted he would interact with most of the others all that often if ever again after their first meeting.
All of that was completely obliterated when Elex Yorke approached Jack. Jack - Sinope - was utterly convinced that Elex had ruined his life and condemned him for all eternity. Or at least as long as he had to live, which might not have been long at all now, thanks to Mr. Smokestack Back. Sinope still didn't know exactly what to make of the half-youma, but having met him as a civilian and then again as a senshi had messed him up big time. It wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't known, but when he'd used his magic and Elex had actually revealed his identity to Sinope, the sailor scout hadn't been able to let it go.
Worse yet was after that, when he was nearly suffocated, strangled, and drowned to death but not deterred. Like a moth to a flame, he'd returned, only to have his starseed grabbed and threatened. Each time, no matter the danger, Sinope hadn't been able to leave the Negaverse captain alone and it terrified him. He didn't understand why, only that his emotions were being irrational and causing him to do stupid things that were detrimental to his help. For someone who had always held their own life in the highest regard, it was especially disconcerting.
He had noticed lately that he would often spend a good deal of time arguing with himself. All the morals and ideals he'd once held so dear as his foundation and basis for everything were crumbling beneath him. Soon he was sure he wouldn't know left from right or up from down anymore. What defined rivals? Enemies? Friends? More than friends? Was it okay to involve oneself with someone if it was a negative relationship, or was there still a threat of attachment? If there was, was that attachment just as dangerous as the usual sort? Was it even worse?
His brain just wouldn't shut up. Night or day, Jack or Sinope, it made no difference. He argued with himself nonstop, hoping to come to some conclusion about how to keep everything he'd ever known from being enveloped by his flood of illogical emotions. His efforts seemed futile, but he knew if he ever stopped trying to bail water out of his little lost, sinking boat, he'd never be able to recover and there would be no hope left for him. As it was, he felt he was already in too deep. It seemed only a matter of time before he went under entirely.
Therefore, following another restless night during which he'd been thinking too much to sleep and on the brink of what he thought must have been insanity, Jack thought he saw the last of his sense and reason leave him. He thought they might have manifested before his eyes as a fleeting image of himself, though it wasn't so fleeting.
As Jack was leaving Romano's, he stared absently at the back of a kid's head and thought it odd how said kid had the same color hair he did. All the boys who had just been dismissed from school all wore more or less the same uniform, but the head of hair that caught his attention was deep red, as his was, with highlights of both blonde and brown. What were the chances that someone else attending the same institution he did would have the same exact hairstyle and color as him? Was it some sort of elaborate prank?
Then the young man turned his head back over his shoulder and Jack stopped walking to stare. The stranger smirked and turned away again. It was if it was a taunt; a challenge. The imposter not only wore his hair, but his face.
Jack dashed forward, uncertain but unwilling to simply allow his lookalike to disappear without some kind of explanation if he could help it. Was it magic? Was a youma responsible? Or was it Mirrorspace? He wouldn't have put it past the mirror-themed dimension of sentience to create its own mirror image of him for some ulterior purpose. Then again, it could have just as easily been a hallucination of his sorely sleep-deprived mind. Did it mean something? If so, what?
The high school sophomore ran and ran, even when any Romano's uniforms besides his own were out of sight. He had had the feeling he wasn't going to be able to catch up with the being, whomever or whatever it was, but he felt compelled to try just the same. Lost in his ponderings about what he had just witnessed, Jack collided hard with a woman who appeared rather dazed.
"Ow!" he yelped, rubbing his head as he stepped back. "Sorry; wasn't looking where I was going."
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2017 9:59 pm
Acubens oofed at the collision she felt against her back and took a small step forward. Turning, she saw the young man who had run into her and though recognition ticked the back of her mind, nothing made its way to the front. Instead it remained an unreachable tickle, like a word that you had known forever but forgot in the moment. Like walking into a room with no idea what you wanted to do once you were there. The feeling of forgetting something important but finding no evidence as to what that important thing might be. She knew the hair... auburn with pale streaks. She knew the eyes... forest green. She knew the shape of his face and the way that he stood, but she seemed to know all of those things separately. Like she recognized them from different people and this young man was an amalgamate of them all. It was a strange feeling of dissonance though it had happened upon her more than her fair share of times she had yet to discern it's meaning. It settled on her mind like a fog and made thinking infuriatingly slow. She pushed the feeling aside as the young man started to speak, however. "No need to apologize," she chirped, resting her hands on the swell of her hips. "No bruise. No harm. No foul. And even if there was a bruise it's not like I haven't had them before." Her normal, easy laugh was somewhat forced in that moment, however, the lingering feeling of her doppelganger still looming over her like a dark cloud. She tried to push it away and honestly it did help her settle in to her normal smile again, but she couldn't shake the feeling of dread that her mirrored self had left her with. She wanted to chalk it up to Destiny City being what it was... and even Mirrorspace pulling something but... both of those possibilities seemed to act as precursors to something much more... dreadful... "Sorry but... you look familiar there, kiddo. Can't quite put my finger on it, so you'll have to forgive me. I'm Acubens, Dark Mirror Senshi of Velociraptors. Where are you going in such a hurry?" And then she noticed the look on his face. Her smile faded and her brows knitted into a worried line above her eyes. "You saw it too," she asked simply, glancing over her shoulder for a second before settling her gaze back on the young man. This made her nerve prickle. If it was just her, then she could chalk it up to stress, but if he saw it too then... Acubens held back a shudder. That made what she saw real, and not a figment of her imagination. And that could mean any number of things from the benign to the malicious. Proverbial hackles stood on end and she stretched her senses out to feel something... anything. A nega out for blood, a youma prowling for something even more dear. Feeling nothing only heightened her sense of dread. "I need to get you out of here," she said decisively. No matter what was happening, this was no place for a kid. An investigation could wait. This young man's safety was Acubens' number one concern right now. And as such, she rested a protective hand on his shoulder and led him back the way she had come, back to the bustling street, though she kept to the alley where she could be hidden. "Stay safe out there," she purred, squeezing his shoulder comfortingly before melting back into the shadows and retreating back to where she had seen herself fleeing.
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 6:54 am
Oops I meant to edit not quote ;;
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