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 Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2022 8:09 pm
Sable needed to divest herself of the notifications she got from Twitter and Instagram whenever Helena posted anything.
She’d needed to do that for well over a year at this point, but every time she clicked over to her ex-but-not-quite’s accounts, she couldn’t bring herself to turn the notifications off. Either she’d get distracted by pawing through all the pictures of Helena and the little blonde bimbo who didn’t deserve to hang off her like she always did, or she simply found she lacked the fortitude to sever that tie. Whatever happened, Sable always wound up in the same place: staring down Helena’s accounts, wishing she was back in New York and letting Helena show her off like she was really worth something, by anybody’s definition.
Thanksgiving dinner with the family always involved some measure of insufferable nonsense. Mom and Mama bickering like a sitcom couple over how they did or didn’t agree to make the potatoes. Dad and Papa simpering about Kit bringing Morgan, their new datemate, who honestly didn’t strike Sable as being too much different from all their previous romantic entanglements. Blaire treating some dog show with the same fervor that most people wasted on football (which was, Sable couldn’t deny, stupider than Blaire about the dogs, but that didn’t excuse xem from being so……Like That). Trevor’s dog getting nose-whapped by Mama’s cats while his fiancé blathered on and on about himself so much, his food got cold. (Truly, he could’ve saved everyone the trouble if he’d simply sung a round of “C’est Moi”: C’est moi, c’est moi, I blush to disclose, I’m far too noble to lie……)
Realistically, Sable had only spent the afternoon and evening with her family, but God, it had been utterly soul-sucking. And the indignity that had finally given her the motivation to grab her coat and make her way home? Oh, it hadn’t come from her brother staring besottedly as his man spewed bullshit so rancid, he might as well have confessed to murdering Jimmy Hoffa (which would have been significantly more realistic than the garbage he’d been spewing).
No, that impulse had come from Helena.
And from Mallorie.
And from once more clicking over to Helena’s Insta, thinking she might finally deactivate notifications, and seeing that the caption her notifs had warned her about—“no caption necessary”—accompanied a photo of Mallorie sitting in Helena’s lap on some overstuffed sofa, next to Helena’s younger brother, whom Sable had never been meant to meet.
Sable’s hand clamped around her phone as if it were a stress-ball. Or like she could only find peace by shattering the stupid thing. In a flash, she left the sofa, reclaimed her shoes and coat, and hit the pavement to go <******** home. Not Mom and Mama’s cute little uptown townhouse, with the option of darting next-door to Dad and Papa’s. But Sable’s own shitty little apartment that she paid her own rent on, without relying on her saccharine parents or some woman who’d never seen her real value and never would.
Cold nipped around her face and neck as she stormed past one of the innumerable ******** parks in this bullshit town she’d never wanted to come back to. Biting her lip, somehow, managed to distract her enough that she didn’t let her eyes tear up. They threatened too, sure—but they didn’t make good on it, and lucky thing, too.
As she stopped at a crosswalk, the lights on over some nearby shops caught her eye—and so did the people lining up around the block. Bundled up in scarves and hats, huddling together, occasionally ducking into the coffee-shop across the street for something to warm them up……Black Friday shoppers.
A quick dart into an alley and Andesine powered up. From there, a quick dash, a clamber up the nearest building, and a hop, skip, jump into the thickest of the crowd. She could only drain one person at a time, but oh, there were so many of them, all lined up for her and not planning to leave until the doors opened up to let them hit the sales.
Andesine grinned. The warmth of excitement made the cold feel like someone else’s problem. With enough focus, she could easily fill a quota off these idiots, siphoning a little energy off each one she worked over, and get away without any of them feeling more that a mild headache.
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Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2022 10:18 pm
Thanksgivign dinner when all you had was yourself and your twin sister was always sort of a...toned-down affair. They cooked together, laughed a lot, had a meal, watched the dog show, and then went on with their separate days. Arianna had a Thanksgiving Eve shift at the Target where she worked, and so Cara had waved her off, and then powered up.
It was a slightly chilly night, and so she slung a cardigan over her uniform and pulled on some leggings so as to make herself look less like a total freak, and went wandering towards one of the shopping streets that would, she guessed, probably be full of Black Friday shoppers. Not that she intended to do any of that--there just wasn't the money in either of their budgets--but she could keep an eye out, in case the Negaverse got any ideas.
And, there, in the crowd--someone who looked just unusual enough.
Casablanca pulled her cardigan a little closer in, wished for not the first time that she sparkled slightly less. Ah well, such was the magical girl way, as she understood.
She slipped up next to the woman she was pretty sure was an officer, dropped her voice, and said, "Hey, so, I probably can't let you harass these people."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:38 am
There was no crime in taking joy in one’s work. No one had told Andesine that, but it sounded true enough to her. Especially as she maneuvered around the crowd, sticking to the edges where she didn’t have to push through quite as many other bodies. Pausing here and there to work over someone else—and nobody knew a thing!
How could they, after all? None of these people had power like the Negaverse offered, or even such as you could find their evil opposites among the White Moon and useless stoner cousins in the Dark Mirror Court. While Andesine siphoned off their energy, they couldn’t feel a thing (or at least she assumed they couldn’t……so much easier to think they couldn’t).
Who says that energy-pilfering’s not an art, she mused with a smile that could easily have been mistaken for pleasant.
Almost enough joy in the work to undermine the very thing that made it joyful. Andesine couldn’t get too lost in everything or else she’d take too much—she tried to cut herself off before anybody started swooning or groaning while they clutched their foreheads. Unfortunately, between enjoying herself and trying to keep her control meticulous, Andesine quit paying attention to other auras on the scene.… Completely missed the oncoming feeling of glaring bright light and blazing heat—until the whisper kicked up against her senses.
Dignity forgotten, Andesine yelped. Jumped—practically out of her skin—and whipped around. Distantly, the noise reminded her of the yappy, overly expensive, “purebred to the point of health problems” purse-dogs Helena had hated so much. Less distantly, searching out the source of her shock made her feel like an idiot.
At least that didn’t take long. Pale, about half-a-foot shorter than Andesine, purple hair, probably still in high school or barely out of it—and absolutely radiating that repulsive aura that all of them had. On top of that, there was her outfit. Whoever this White Moon drone was, the costume department had done her dirty, cutting off her height with those leggings. Andesine only hoped the cardigan had been this girl’s own addition and not an actual part of her uniform.
“What harassment,” Andesine huffed, shaking out her own tousled curls. “I wasn’t bothering anybody until you snuck up on me.”
Hopefully, they could get out of this without bothering anybody or drawing too much attention. The yelping had gotten some of the civilians’ eyes onto them, but it was nothing Andesine couldn’t recover from. Maybe she couldn’t get too harsh about defending herself—her jingle-bells weighed heavy on her wrist, reminding her how little they actually helped in combat and how much work a proper fight breaking out would have undone—but she could at least act like the girl was out of her mind.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:57 am
Well. Casablanca hadn't entirely meant to startle the girl--woman, she was definitely a woman, older thna Casablanca and very pretty, which was not something Casablanca needed to be thinking about--that she was coming up on, but probably it was a good thing to distract her from whatever she was doing.
Ugh, the real problem was that there were too many people here to cause a real scene, or to actually start a proper punch-up. She couldn't start swinging or she'd look like a total weirdo, which, okay, was kinda true. She was in fact a magical costumed weirdo who went out and started fights with strangers sometimes, but it was for a good cause, probably, mostly.
"I think you know exactly what harassment," Casablanca said, keeping her voice low and even. "You're taking energy form these people, aren't you."
It wasn't a question, because she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.
"Look. I don't want to make a scene. You don't want to make a scene. Why don't you just pop whatever sparkly energy ball you've got so it goes back to these poor people,and then we both walk away and we don't have any more problems, and very critically, I do not punch you in your very cute face. I think that sounds like a pretty good deal, yeah?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 10:03 am
Turning away, Andesine decided that part of making this girl look like the lunatic between the two of them needed to be brushing her off—or doing it as much as possible. The more Andesine looked ahead—the more she channeled all her old classes on Uta Hagen and the Stanislavski method while dragging her eyes over the crowd—the more she could make other people around them believe she was minding her own business.
Of course, Andesine knew exactly what harassment this girl meant. But that didn’t mean she needed to cede the upper hand. She simply needed to believe that she had a friend in the crowd somewhere, and tilt her head up, stand on her toes as if looking for them. Believe that, commit to it, and others would believe it, too.
Unfortunately, turning away from the girl didn’t make Andesine less curious about her. Didn’t stop Andesine from undermining her own game by glancing back over her shoulder as if that might tell her everything about what this girl’s deal was. Could she have been a senshi? One of the White Moon’s Knights? In the case of the former, then maybe the cardigan hid some of the telltale signs. All the senshi Andesine had seen out there, even those in the Negaverse and the Dark Mirror Court, seemed to have distinctive collars and, more often than not, bows on their chests.
As it failed to quell Andesine’s curiosity, committing to her façade also failed to curb her desire to get the last word. “If you don’t want to make a scene,” she pointed out, keeping her voice low (though the crosstalk from everyone else probably meant she and the girl wouldn’t be heard too easily), “then why don’t you take a look around you? Do you see anybody acting like they’ve had their energy drained?”
She had been careful. Trying to continue doing so, Andesine cut herself off from the man she’d been focused on prior to this interruption. In all likelihood, she could have taken a bit more energy from him, but that could’ve gotten messy. The intrepid little White Moon soldier didn’t know who Andesine had or hadn’t drained from, and she had been so. careful. to only take so much. If anyone seemed tired, then hopefully, it might get chalked up to it being Black Friday Eve, and then standing in line for the sales after presumably long days of food and family.
Hopefully, at least. The training manual had been clear, though: you couldn’t trust these sell-outs from the White Moon worth a damn.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:15 pm
Casablanca crossed her arms and frowned. This was probably a lost cause, just because of the huge crowd of civilians, but she couldn't just....abandon her hope of making a ******** point. She'd look like a total idiot if she backed down now, no matter how much this chick was pretending to ignore her.
Ugh, it pissed her off, but it kinda made sense, too, and really, which of them would win in a White Girl Cry-Off? Hard to say.
"Okay, so nobody's dropping or passed out. So you weirdos can skim a little off the top, or whatever. But don't you think that maybe it might still have an effect on people? Like, wow, you've made people more tired as they gear up to go in on the worst night of the year to work retail, cool, wonder how many of them will now have shorter tempers and less patience because they're more tired than they'd be otherwise?"
She took a glance at the crowd herself, and then crossed her arms and squared her shoulders.
"But if you wanna pretend you're so good, and nothing you do could ever hurt anyone, then whatever, that's totally your right, I guess. And I guess you kinda have to be a short-sighted moron to fall for the Negaverse recruitment talk."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:35 pm
Listening to the girl go on, Andesine couldn’t help smirking—in a way that, to a shock that she would unpack later, thank you, and ideally speak of to no one, felt significantly more positive than not. The gumption this one had almost would’ve been commendable if not for the part where she’d signed up for the exact wrong team. As long as she could get right with the chain of command, pluck and nerve like that could take her far with the Negaverse.
Or so Andesine hoped, since she was currently relying on the same strategy to work her a** off, improve, and impress General Ashanite—give or take any other higher-ups who might take notice of her work (Monoceros, Chrysocolla, Captain Arsenolite, Captain Larimar, anyone who might take her seriously and reward her efforts). She needed audacity and ambition to work for her so she could earn a promotion, so she could have something immediately on her side, besides a necklace of unmiraculous little jingle bells. Like someone had abandoned a magical Christmas elf at Hot Topic.
“Have you ever heard a Negaverse recruitment talk for yourself,” Andesine pointed out, giving the girl a more proper look, so she could smile like an oil spill that thought it might’ve had more in common with a five-foot-two decorative shrubbery than the five-foot-two decorative shrubbery wanted to admit. “Did anyone present you with options when they showed up for career day at your school? Give you a chance to choose for yourself? Or did they thrust upon you the greatness of their forever war and tell you to be grateful?”
If the girl cared to pay attention, no one else would be showing signs of additional exhaustion. Or if they did, it would be on their own lack of caffeine, their own screaming children, their own problems. For the moment, Andesine had stopped draining and graced with her attention this girl who wanted it so badly.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 4:43 pm
Casablanca squeezed her hand around her little white cloth, feeling the edge of the metal star begin to dig into her hand. This was so incredibly frustrating--this woman really seemed totally convinced that she was doing the right thing. That it was...just totally fine to suck energy from people. That it was in any way excusable to use ordinary humans like cattle.
Ugh. Casablanca hated these self-righteous Negaverse jerks.
"I don't need to hear the recruitment talk, I see what you people do." Casablanca hissed. "You're out here, pulling energy from innocent people, and you act like it's weird that I think that's wrong. Ugh, you people are the worst."
There was no point in arguing, and if she kept pushing, it might end up putting the people around her at risk.
"Just....leave these poor people alone." Like that was at all discouraging.
Feeling more than a little guilty about her failure, but not eager to keep pushing and find out what might happen, Casablanca turned around and walked off.
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