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 Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:37 am
Something was following him. At first, Julian had thought it was a dog, but he’d only seen it once and he wasn’t an expert but he’d never seen a dog with legs that looked like human arms, and though he’d only seen it for a second he was certain he’d seen fingers on it, and something that almost resembled a monkey’s tail.
He’d been out at the park for some fresh air, and he’d tried to head home before it got too dark. He didn’t want to get in trouble, but he also didn’t want to get attacked by some monkey-dog monster.
Once, he thought he’d lost it, but the shrill bark he’d heard just behind him was enough to scare him into the bushes.
He waited.
And waited.
He held his bookbag close to his chest.
He couldn’t outrun a dog, so the best thing he could hope for was to hide from it. He kept his eyes out for it, but he kept absolutely silent.
Which was good, because the creature slung down the sidewalk like it owned the place, and it looked like it was hunting.
It raised its head and sniffed at the air, but if Julian had ever been grateful for the park’s activities, tonight trumped all of them. The smell of grilled burgers and hot dogs was still lingering from an earlier event, and even if everyone had cleared out, he hoped it was enough to keep the creature moving.
…Except, suddenly it turned away from the path, and looked into the bushes.
Right at him.
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Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2023 7:28 pm
There were too many people in the park to make patrolling there easy this evening. But the fact that she felt a youma made her feel…both worried and a great sense of pity. Youma were worth pitying…and the fact that she would have to dust this one made her a little upset, but it couldn’t be allowed to run wild. Not when the park was so full of people.
Swiftly, she made her way towards the aura and felt a moment of pleasure that the thing had its back to her, but then a flash of fear when she saw it was looking at someone who was clearly trying to hide in the bushes.
s**t. So much for using her magic. If she tried from this angle, the youma might move and she might hit the poor civilian who was hiding. So…trying to get the attention of the creature was clearly the best idea. “Hey! Over here, why mess with a mere human when there’s a tasty senshi?”
Her voice was loud in the night and she hoped that the ruse worked, and her eyes searched for those of the civilian, hoping to convey that she was here to rescue them.
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Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2023 3:14 pm
Julian heard another voice and stiffened immediately. He wanted to open his mouth and yell that he thought it might be dangerous, but when he caught sight of her, she–
Well, she was calling it over? He didn’t know what a Senshi was, but she was clearly trying to get his attention. He was young, he paid attention to the news. Destiny City was dangerous, especially with all these gang members and their wars, and–
He’d been holding his breath and was starting to get a little dizzy from it. He felt like his muscles had all locked up. He’d caught sight of her eyes directly but he couldn't even find his voice to say thank you and he couldn’t find the willpower to run.
There was a clicking noise nearby; the thing he’d seen was making a strange, eerie noise as it stood on its hind legs.
It looked at her and seemed to contemplate–and then, slyly, as if to spite her or test its luck with the weaker target–it shot straight towards him.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2023 7:16 pm
“s**t!” The word exploded from Lysithea and as quickly as she could, she ran towards the youma, turning to try and knock it off course, by throwing her whole weight against it. “Run. Can you run? I can handle this thing, don’t you worry, but you get to safety, okay?” She wanted him to run before she really began to fight. Wanted to know he was out of harm’s way before she put all of her concentration towards the youma.
“I can handle this I promise you.” Lysithea tried to make her voice reassuring and turned to look at the youma, working to position herself between it and the boy. If he couldn’t manage to run…well. She’d just do her best regardless and make sure he didn’t get hurt.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2023 7:50 pm
Julian could run. He knew better than to argue with someone in a strange costume, someone older than him, someone who was fighting a monster.
He nodded firmly and put his hand on the ground to push himself up. He didn’t think anything of the strange item beneath his hand. At first, he assumed it was just a tree root, but suddenly he was slammed with a bunch of strange sensations. He felt strangely smothered by what was the equivalent of a foul smell if it was instead some strange air pressure, but even that was dwarfed by a warmer, safer sensation.
He didn’t understand; his adrenaline was too high right now. His bag felt like nothing when he got up and–wait, no. He didn’t have a bag. Where did it go?
His uniform was gone and he was in strange colors and–
Had he hit his head? Had he died?
There was a brief second where he was completely stunned and faltered–and then, the youma let out another screech and flailed. When its tail hit the ground, it sent a small earthquake that knocked him off balance, but it was clear that now it was just trying to cause as much damage as it could.
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2023 3:56 pm
Lysithea froze when a sudden aura flared and her head swiveled around to the boy she was trying to protect and…sure enough. He was in a shiny outfit that he hadn’t been in a moment before. Oh.
Okay, so the boy was a Page and…
..And the symbols that glinted on his hat were.
…Okay then.
It wasn’t easy to keep balance in heels but, she managed, and once again put herself between the youma and the newly awakened page.
Shaking her head to try and clear it, Lysithea cast her magic at the youma, wanting this over with, wanting to have a chance to talk with the boy…if this was his first time changing into…whoever he was now. “Untamed Purity!”Kyuseisha no Hikari When Lysithea calls out her attack a flash of white light rushes at her opponent, and if the attack hits them, it feels as though something heavy is hitting them, much like if a Unicorn were to slam into them. The force of this may be enough to knock over weaker opponents. After the initial impact the opponent will feel four distinct feelings of pain, as though the unicorn was trying to trample them. The feeling lasts for forty five seconds, and this attack can be used once per battle.
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2023 5:17 pm
The youma let out a loud, screeching hiss as her magic slammed into it. The creature was sent barrelling a few feet away, but it was up on its feet almost instantly. It charged at her–slammed into her with as much force as it could muster.
And, it kept going.
If Lysithea didn’t hit the page, the creature would have.
It took only seconds for them to be a pile of limbs and discordant flailing.
The youma tried to beat down on the both of them, and Dering–at the bottom of the pile, tried to push himself up. The only thing he had was the weapon in his hand, and he might have hit the thing twice while struggling to get up.
Alone, he never would have been able to defend against it, but as Lysithea’s magic continued to wear on, parts of the youma began to crumble into nothingness. It looked as though it was being trampled into dust above them, and as the seconds ticked on it began to fade into a powdery dust that wafted away with the wind.
Soon, the only thing left was the echoes of its screeches.
Dering had raised his hands to protect his face and he appeared dirty but relatively unharmed. He stayed still, petrified, even after the youma had faded.
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2023 7:37 pm
Lysithea grunted as she was thrown into the poor Page, but felt an immense relief when the aura of the youma faded, and the youma itself turned to dust.
They were safe. She was safe, and this poor boy was safe…this poor…Lysithea Page was safe.
Drawing in a breath and trying to calm her frantically beating heart, Lysithea drew away and looked the Page over, trying to take in everything she could about him. “...Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? I have healing magic that I can use on you if you need it, please just let me know, I am happy to help in any way that I can…”
He looked pale, and hopefully it was just from shock…hopefully it wasn’t from anything more sinister, like a wound she hadn’t noticed or anything to that effect. “My name is Lysithea, I’m the Senshi of Unicorns…I…” She drew in a breath and looked the boy over once more. “...Is…this the first time you’ve worn those clothes…? That…they have appeared?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2023 7:34 am
His heart was pounding. His thoughts felt like needles in his mind, pricking his thoughts and spilling them out all over.
She was talking to him, asking questions. He might have a bruise or two tomorrow, but he was okay. He didn’t feel pain, not enough to justify how worried she was for him.
“I’m okay,” he said, and tried to scoot backwards a little bit. “Sorry. I–yeah, no, I don’t know what this is. I wasn’t wearing this.” He tried to rub at his arms but the fabric didn’t shift, his clothes didn’t reappear. “I–I’m sorry, what did you say your name is? I don’t know what anything you just said means, I’m sorry.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2023 10:23 am
Lysithea nodded and thought for a moment before she softly murmured “Lysithea Mending Horn,” And pressed the tip of the ethereal horn to the boy’s arm, allowing the magic to go where it was needed.
With her free hand, she opened the top of her music box, allowing the soft tinkling to break the silence of the night. “It’s all right, you’re going to be all right, my name is Sailor Lysithea, I’m what’s called a Senshi, and we help to protect this city from monsters like the one that you just saw, they’re called youma, and they can look like…almost anything.” She watched him, and hesitated before placing her hand on his shoulder.
“You…have just become a Page, it looks like. Which means that you have magic, you have the power to help protect the city too…if…if you can close your eyes and think...think about who you are, you’ll come up with what your name is, you name for when you’re looking like this. When you’re a Page, a Knight in training…ah…there is so much to explain, let’s just start with you finding your name…”
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2023 1:24 pm
The healing magic was strange and sudden, like being dunked in the warm water of a nice bath. She was doing a lot, and maybe under other circumstances he would have felt less overwhelmed, but–
Well, this was a lot.
But, Julian listened. He accepted. He wasn’t gullible, but it was hard to argue or doubt someone giving him answers after what just happened. His life wasn’t fantastic enough that he thought it should be more likely there was a camera crew hiding in the bushes, participating in some fantastical prank.
Despite how muddled his brain felt, she mentioned finding a name and he heard it.
Swallowing, he mumbled, “Dering.”
Although, there wasn’t really anything daring about him, so that was probably wrong. Maybe. No, Dering sounded right.
“But I’m not sure why I would have become anything. I’m not anything special. I can’t go home looking like this. I’m not good at protecting anyone. I’m sorry, this is just a lot.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2023 6:54 pm
“Welcome, Dering…It’s very nice to meet you.” Lysithea gently squeezed his shoulder and gently rubbed it. “I can understand feeling that. But, there’s something special in you, I know that it’s a lot to take in, but…there’s a whole lot of things that you’ll learn now, and a whole lot of factors that come into this. Basically…your soul is special. Inside all of us is something called a Starseed…and you have one that allows you to become a Knight…and…even if you think you’re not good at protecting anyone, you’ll get there. I’ll help you.”
She hesitated and chewed her lip for a moment, reaching over and pulling off his fancy hat to show him one of the symbols. “I…oddly enough, you…you’re…extremely special, at least to me. You see the symbol here?”
Pointing to one of the symbols on the hat, she pointed at her own head, at the symbol that glowed in the middle of her forehead. “I’m Sailor Lysithea…as I said…and I think…I’m…quite sure in fact, that you, Dering…are a Lysithea Page…which means that…you’re extremely special to me. And I’m very excited to meet you.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2023 8:51 pm
Dering seemed a bit more aware of her touching him now that his adrenaline was going down, and he stayed very still but seemed a bit nervous all the same. She removed his hat–a hat he didn’t even know he’d been wearing–but it still made him feel oddly vulnerable.
He nodded when she showed him the symbol, and though it was new to him it still felt familiar.
And, it did match.
Her praise was a bit overwhelming–he hadn’t lived his life to be special and he felt flustered and worried with the barrage of kindness.
“What does–what does that mean for me? For us? I don’t understand what that–what does a Page do? What am I supposed to do for you?”
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Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2023 7:49 am
Lysithea put his had back on top of Dering’s head and then moved away slightly and plopped herself down on the ground, wanting to continue the conversation and help him feel less overwhelmed. “It means that I will do my best to protect you…it means that in the past…like, a thousand years in the past, another lifetime…you lived on Lysithea, my homeworld, and you helped to protect it…at least that’s to my understanding. I know that there’s at least one other Lysithea Knight out there but I still haven’t met her yet so…”
She drew in a breath and thought for a moment before closing her eyes and letting her powered form fade, leaving Talia behind. “In order to become who you were, just think about who you are. Think about what you were wearing, think about things that you enjoy. Our powered sides are to keep us and those we care for safe. When I’m not Sailor Lysithea, my name is Talia, and…I’m just a normal person like you are.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2023 8:59 am
For a moment longer, he looked like it was just a lot to take in.
But, he didn’t think it was a prank. She had an answer for his questions like it was a fact, not like she was scrambling to come up with some lie to tell him. And he’d seen magic–online, at least–and this didn’t have sparkles and glamor. It just seemed…
Real.
“Oh. Okay,” he said, only because he didn’t want to fill the air with an awkward silence.
What she said seemed true enough; his inability to completely believe it stemmed only from the fact that he didn’t think he’d ever been anything special to begin with.
“That’s a lot to take in,” he said, and sounded apologetic. He looked at Talia, he’d listened to her words. His brain felt a little scrambled and overwhelmed, but he tried to do what she said, and–
The outfit was gone. His bag was back. He pulled it close to his chest and held it, and it seemed to be enough to ground him. “I’m Julian. I’m going to get in trouble for being out so late. I didn’t mean to, though. I don’t think they’ll believe me if I tell them any of this.”
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