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 Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2022 10:02 pm
Ilse was desperately antsy. they'd gotten away from the food truck, which made sense; she didn't want to cause too much trouble for poor Evan, be it from the Negaverse or the other side. Maybe they'd run into someone who would understand, or maybe they'd run into someone who attacked Chaos on sight because of the many many crimes that people in the Negaverse committed.
Like taking sweet, beautiful Senshi and corrupting them, trying to crack them into pieces and make them into something they weren't. Like what she had helped to do to Lysithea. Like what they were just barely beginning to fix.
She took a shaky breath, and produced the little pager that Mikellos had given her, turning ti over in her hands.
"I'm not sure who your friends are?" She told Evan, nervously, "but there's someone I need to contact. He's been looking for Lysithea, and I told him I would help her get out, so I should probably. Page him. So he knows I'm leaving the Negaverse." She held up the little Mauvian device, with its adorable cat face. "If you'd rather just get out of here, I can ask him for help finishing this? I really don't want to impose on you too much." Especially since as far as she knew, Evan was just an ordinary person. He didn't deserve to be caught up in all this.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2022 8:37 am
Evan glanced over at the pager and frowned, because it looked suspiciously like something he’d seen Soleiyu working on back home. But, he wasn’t going to assume anything and just nodded. He hadn’t introduced his friends and he was going to be careful until he had everything in order and knew that no one was going to interrupt.
He hadn’t powered up or mentioned that he was a Senshi–he didn’t want something bad to happen while he was alone, or to accidentally out not only himself, but everyone important to him as well.
“I want to make sure you’re okay,” Evan said, because it was a little suspicious that this would have been a trap and she was offering to let him leave. “If you need to call anyone to let them know, you can go ahead. You’ve got time. Um–who is your friend? The one looking for Lysithea. I can stay at least until they get here. But I want to make sure you have a place to go afterwards, I want to make sure you’ve got someone who can talk you through things. You’re important to Ana, so I’m going to make sure you’re taken care of.”
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2022 2:30 pm
Ilse nodded. Evan was so sweet--she was lucky that Ana had such good friends, and that Ana was willing to share those friends with her.
"His name is Mikellos," Ilse said, because she thought--she hoped--that she would be able to trust Evan. So far, though, he seemed good, and sweet, and she wanted to trust him. Wanted to hope that she was making the right decision. Because if she wasn't, well...
It would be very bad.
"He said I would just need to press this to page him," she said, and she did, holding the button down, as she'd been directed. She hoped he would be able to find her. It sort of felt like he should be here, since he was the reason she was even capable of wanting to do this. "And, um. I also had someone else offer to give me space to stay--Sailor Albireio? I guess she used to be int he Negaverse, too. So many people have been so kind, and so helpful."
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2022 5:42 pm
Mikellos sure did sound a lot like Michel, who would have had access to Soleiyu’s technology. He watched as it flashed, and very distinctly remembered Soleiyu asking his opinion on if the light should be blue or red.
Evan had suggested purple, like his eyes.
The light on the pager flashed purple.
“I’m glad you have someone else looking out for you. I hope he comes soon. But we can take it easy until then.”
He didn’t want her to get nervous, so he took the opportunity to make some small talk. He talked about favorite foods, some of the neat hole in the walls, some headlines he’d read recently. He talked about nothing, just to pass the time.
And then he saw purple.
And purple saw him.
Michel’s jaw clenched, beyond his typical resting b***h face, but he said nothing. He looked at Evan like he was trouble, and then he stopped looking at him at all.
“What’s he doing here?” he asked Ilse; he hadn’t come with his weapon this time, but he seemed guarded and with very little patience to begin with.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2022 6:14 pm
Ilse listened while Evan talked. She was glad for him; he was chatty, and that filled the air, and while normally she would be all too happy to chat right back, right then, she was trying very hard not to be sick. After she pressed the button, she had to work not to fidget with it, in case that meant she accidentally pressed the button again and made him think this wasn't urgent.
So she fidgeted with the ribbons on her dress, instead; they made for an easy thing to fiddle with, and helped her sort of ground herself. When she felt a Knight's aura approaching, though, she straightened, and stiffened, and hoped it was Mikellos.
It was, and when she saw him, she let out a relieved sigh. He seemed angry, but--that was his natural state, was the impression Ilse had, and he'd lost someone very important to him, so that meant he was probably on edge a lot.
The answer to his question was complicated, and she bit the inside of her cheek briefly as she churned over how to answer it in a way that wouldn't reveal who Ana was to Evan--that wasn't her choice to make.
"I was pointed to him by a friend," Ilse said, "who told me he could help me. And since...I think we're doing this thing, where I leave the Negaverse," she looked him in the eyes, squaring her shoulders, drawing herself up like she had confidence and determination, "I wanted to have you here. I don't know what I might forget, and I know I'll forget some things. So I hope...you can help me remember, if I lose track of why I wanted to do this in the first place."
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2022 9:16 pm
Michel kept his eyes on her.
“You’re not supposed to leave without Lysithea,” he said after a few seconds. “That was our agreement. I’d help you get out, but you’re supposed to bring her, too.”
He spoke as if Evan wasn’t there because, honestly, it was better that he wasn’t. He was in his civilian guise, and that meant that somebody knew he knew someone, but hopefully that meant they didn’t know who he was.
What he was.
“If you leave the Negaverse without her, I don’t have any access to her.”
He was agitated, cranky. Maybe worried, but he showed it in strange ways if that was the case. He should have been happier for Ilse but he couldn't be glad to be plucking someone out of the Negaverse when he didn’t know what was going on with Lysithea.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2022 9:32 pm
"Lysithea insisted," Ilse said. "But she wasn't ready, even after I told her the truth. I didn't want to leave without her, either, but I think..."
She swallowed.
"She had loose ends she wanted to tie up. And if I don't get out before she tells Faustite what I told her, he'll kill me." That wasn't a question. He would summon her to him, and her starseed would be forfeit, and that would be that. "He'll probably try anyway, it'll just be a little harder when he can't summon me straight to him. And I'd really like to not die," she said. Her voice had dropped to something soft, and sad, and pleading, and a lot of the steel had gone out of her spine. It had mostly been fake confidence, anyway; that was most of what she had these days.
"I'm sorry. I know it's not what we agreed to. But I also didn't want to just...do it and leave you in the dark, either."
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Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:01 am
Evan listened quietly, trying to piece together things no one had told him. He was out of place here, among a Senshi and a Knight, who had concocted some plan.
He hadn’t known Michel was actually doing things other than picking fights. Although, it looked like he could have picked another one right now.
But, Ilse said Lysithea insisted, and…
His stomach churned; it felt like a snake, coiled and ready to strike. Or maybe it already had; he already felt a little dizzy.
Michel didn’t look happy.
But. He seemed to understand.
His scowl deepened. “Fine,” he said. “But you’re not off the hook just because you’re getting out of the Negaverse. If something happens to her, I’m still blaming you. You know how to call Cosmos?” He looked at Evan for a second, like he was trying to figure out if he needed to chase him off. In the end, he just looked back at Ilse.
“You just have to want to be free. Just close your eyes and focus. Think about getting out. You have to look inside yourself and ask for help. We can do it here. It doesn’t take long.” He exhaled, and had summoned his weapon just so he could dig it into the ground and lean against it. “You’ll be safe. I won’t let the Negaverse have you.”
As long as they get Lysithea back in the end.
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Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 12:44 pm
Ilse nodded. She hadn't expected to be free of her obligation just because she wasn't in the Negaverse anymore. She still had to help Lysithea--and she wouldn't really be free until she had corrected her biggest mistake.
That was how it worked, wasn't it? If you wanted to be better, you had to try and make up for the terrible things you hand done before. That was just what a redemption arc was.
So, okay, this was her redemption arc.
"Okay," she said, and she nodded at Michel's explnation. She wasn't sure how hard she had to try--but she did fold her hands, and close her eyes, and hope.
There was a hint of worry, in the way her expression furrowed--after all, this was what Lysithea had tried before, and it hadn't worked. No one had come, except for Hessonite, and--
And she could not let herself get hung up on that. Maybe something had been wrong before. Maybe she hadn't been ready. But she was ready now. And so she took a deep breath, and focused, and called out, with her heart and soul, and hoped that this mysterious Cosmos heard and answered.
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Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2022 9:28 pm
It wasn’t always easy to tell if Cosmos had heard the call or not. She was little more than a speck of light in the sky, sometimes too faint to see until she arrived. Now, it was no different. Ilse’s call could have fallen upon deaf ears, or Cosmos could have been buried too deep in the Cauldron to hear. Hessonite could have shown up again to reclaim him, to stop her. Or, nothing. There was a stillness in the air, unsettling, almost–and then, she arrived. Staff in hand, Cosmos raised her chin as she looked at Ilse. The lone fog of Chaos in the area, with a Knight and a civilian by her side. There was something curious in Cosmos’ expression as she looked at the woman, like there was something she should know. A familiarity, maybe. Or, perhaps she was only just now hearing how loudly her starseed was calling for her. “You are afraid,” she deduced. It wasn’t the fear of someone waiting for an ambush. It was the fear of someone who wanted out. “If you are in danger, we can do this quickly. I can give you the power you need to escape the darkness.” She held out her hand. “You need only accept it and this nightmare will be over.”
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Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2022 10:09 pm
Ilse waited. She hoped. She prayed that this time, it worked, and Cosmos arrived, and she wasn't left alone all over again--and worse, that she hadn't dragged poor Evan and Mikellos into all of this.
But she felt--something, and she opened her eyes, and--yes. Cosmos was. Cosmos was there. This had to be the person Lysithea had spoken of, all those months, ago, and she was radiant, and beautiful. And suddenly, it almost didn't matter why she hadn't come before--because she was here now, and offering her hand.
"Very much so," Ilse confessed. It seemed better to own up to her fear, to admit to it and acknowledge it. "But I am also very sure of what I want."
So she took the hand that was offered. It seemed the only thing to do.
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Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2022 4:40 pm
Cosmos nodded, convinced enough that now was a good time. Ilse was ready. She might only have this one chance. “Then, breathe. It’s okay.” She held onto Ilse’s hand and gave it a little squeeze before he dismissed her staff. She rested her other hand over her chest, as close to the starseed as she could manage without the intrusiveness of sliding her hand into Ilse’s chest. “This will be over in a moment. You can do this.” Gentle, otherworldly, but so certain. Cosmos was not afraid. She didn’t want Ilse to be, either.
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Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2022 4:52 pm
Cosmos was so gentle. So kind. This was exactly what Ilse had imagined, when she thought of someone who might bear that name, and who might come in answer to the hope of a soul that needed to escape.
She smiled. Took a breath. Believed that she could do this. Believed that she could let go.
She hadn't enjoyed her corruption, but she had thought it was for the better. She had thought she was making the right choice, that she would be protecting the Earth, that she would be doing the right thing. She knew now that was all lies. Knew that it was not what she had been told.
This, though--this was also not easy. It hurt, chasing Chaos from her soul. But it hurt in the way that new shoes hurt, when you first put them on--a pain that was the promise of something better, if you just worked through it.
And when she opened her eyes, after it was over, she was clad in white, and she was smiling.
"Thank you," Ilse said softly. "Thank you so much."
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Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2022 10:28 am
Cosmos drew her hand away gently, but not without making sure that Ilse could support herself. “It’s over,” she assured gently. Her eyes went briefly to the civilian, and then to the Knight, before her attention returned to Ilse. “You should rest. It is always a taxing experience. But the worst of it is behind you. You have a bright future ahead of you. And, you are not alone.” She hadn’t been there for long, but she didn’t have much time on Earth. The Cauldron required almost constant attention, now more than ever. “If you have need of me again, you need only call. I will always come if I can.”
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Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2022 1:45 pm
Ilse smiled, and nodded. "I will," she said. She could feel a little wobble in her knees, and a wave of tiredness came over her, but she forced herself to stay standing. It wasn't like she wasn't used to pushing thorugh tiredness--
Though she couldn't remember....why....she felt like she was used to that.
There was a big, blank gap in her memory, and she was barely ready to try pulling that apart. She couldn't remember...anything of who she had been, except for Ilse, and Ilse's memories were. Tumultuous, to say the least.
She swallowed, and turned to Michel and Evan.
"Thank you both, too. I...I really appreciate everything you've all done for me."
This was step one. There was plenty more to do, though. And it was time to get started.
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