Naeria was used to it now. The humans played it in all of their shops, and at all of their events, and from all of their communication devices. It was almost hard to get away from it, to find silence.
Naeria liked silence, but sometimes, she'd found, she liked the music, too. Fae-Fae had been researching music, and when Naeria was reading through research papers, she liked to curl up outside of her friend's door and listen to the way that she gently plucked the strings of her cello. It sounded gentle, peaceful, different from so much of the supermarket music and the other harsh noises of the city.
It sounded like rain.
It wasn't something that she was expecting to hear in an alleyway. Sometimes she found mushrooms here, growing up through cracks in the concrete or gravel. No luck with that today, but she heard the music all the same.
Music that couldn't have come from anyone else, and yet there was no one here.
Was she hallucinating? Her weapon was on her, and it was possible that it was malfunctioning. She leaned against a nearby wall and began to inspect it.
Whimsical Blue
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2023 9:34 pm
It was hard to pin point what exactly it was about the music Eros heard that was so familiar. It was driving her to distraction, enough that she'd given up and started following the sound, trying to find the source. It didn't sound like Rob busking... it didn't have his deep voice. It wasn't any voice that she could place, and she couldn't make out the words, so that was no help.
The longer she followed it, the more agitated the eternal senshi became. This was so dumb... sure, music moved her, but not usually to tears... and she felt her eyes burning as she picked up her pace, jumping from one building to another and then dropping down between them. This way? No... If she could just find the source, maybe she could make them stop and whatever this feeling was, it would stop too. Eros smoked as much as she did because she didn't want to feel this way...
Ah, but there was someone here already, cast in shadow by the tall buildings and Eros hesitated, reaching out her senses... and finding nothing. Gosh, they were tall too. At 5'2", she was used to being shorter than other people, but the more she glanced over this figure, the more she realized just how much difference there was in their sizes. Not like, unnatural, but noticeable.
This must be a civilian, since she couldn't feel any sort of energy signature. Hard to explain why she'd just jumped down off a building, but maybe they hadn't noticed her yet. Trying to act as casual as a rainbow-bright girl could in essentially a bikini with wings, Eros headed for the mouth of the alley, pointedly keeping her attention off the girl against the wall. She'd have whistled to herself, if it wouldn't have drawn more attention to her.
The Calling (12) : A beautiful melody drifts on the air from somewhere far away. The vocals are in a language you don’t quite recognize, but feel somehow familiar to you. Something about the song calls to you, but no matter where you go, the song seems to sound the same distance away. The longer it goes on, the more emotional the song becomes--and the more emotional you become. Something about the song is possessive and consuming, like it’s all you can think of. Something resonates in you as the song crescendos, and the feeling is at its strongest--be they good, bad, anything, but suddenly the song fades, and there’s only an emptiness inside of you. The feeling of loss is strong, and can leave someone feeling emotionally numb. Someone out there was calling to you, and you couldn’t find them.
Naeria saw the girl drop off of the roof. Her owlish eyes flicked up, away from her gun, and she watched as she stood at the entrance to the alley, seemingly unhurt. She watched humans often, at the stables, and at the university where she took classes sometimes.
They never did that.
She glanced to the ComTech on her wrist, and sure enough, there was a senshi's signature nearly on top of her own location.
She looked up to watch the senshi again, but the senshi didn't even seem to see Naeria. She was staring out into the street, instead. That was where the music was coming from, Naeria realized.
"Um," Naeria was vocalizing before she could stop herself, although afterwards the words caught in her throat again and she just sat there for a second or two, staring, before she managed to add, "Do you hear it, too?"
She straightened up to her full height. People didn't often come this way, so she hadn't bothered with the glamour. It would be clear that she was tall, with violet skin and pointed ears. She wasn't from Earth.
"I thought it might be this," she said, tapping her thumb nail on her gun. There was too long of a pause before she managed to continue, "It, um. Causes hallucinations, but you would have been too far away."
Whimsical Blue
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2023 7:12 pm
Eros' steps halted when she heard the voice and she grimaced, knowing she'd been caught out. When she turned, with was with a bright grin to replace the grimace and she waved, rocking on her heels.
"Ah, hello there! Sorry if I'm intruding on something..." She chirped, before she registered what the other had said.
"Oh... the music? Yeah, I'd been following it, but..." Oh. Oh, man... This was not a normal girl. Normal girls did not have purple skin or slit pupils, not unless they were wearing face paint and contact lenses... and somehow she didn't think that was the case here. It took an effort not to gape at the strange girl... person-thing.
"Um... I guess so? I was a few blocks away when I heard it... You're not a youma, right? Or one of those half-youma? Because you're required to tell me if you are, 'cause this pin says the Negaverse isn't allowed to mess with me." Eros said, flipping over her collar to show the tiny jeweled bunch of grapes pinned there. Not that the other had many any sort of threatening gesture yet, but that gun did not look like the toy kind, even strange as it was. Never seen one of them carry something like that before...
"Hallucinations, huh? You must be loads of fun at parties."
Was she a youma? Naeria blanched at the thought, even as caught off guard as she was by the sudden social interaction. She remembered the twisted beings that she'd seen in the throne room of the Negaverse's castle. They made her skin crawl.
But if this human had some kind of connection to the Negaverse, then that was possibly something they had in common, no matter how much of a technicality it was on Naeria's part.
"No, I am a Velencyan," she answered, matter of fact. "They are not supposed to 'mess with' us, either."
Although that became complicated, because the Negaverse was at least supplying equipment to help kill Caedus, and she did not think their thoughts on the matter were as complex as Lyndin's were. They would turn on whoever they needed to turn on if it was to their benefit.
Instead of thinking farther on that, she tapped her finger against one of the stickers on her gun. "We also do not have parties," and the only one that she'd attended since coming to Earth had been an outlier that had ended in disaster, "But, um. I think it would be fun, yes." The words came a little easier if she was not talking about the Negaverse. "It is based on chemicals that humans define as recreational."
Whimsical Blue
Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2023 7:05 pm
Well, that certainly made things easier. She had no idea what a Velencyan was, but if they were allied with the Negaverse then maybe by extension they could be okay with her? Whatever, really, as long as it meant this girl wasn't trying to beat her up, which seemed to be the case.
"No parties? How boring!" Eros laughed as she relaxed, sashaying closer with her hands on her ruffled hips. Her bright head cocked to the side like a curious bird. "I could show you the best parties, they are kind of my specialty. Someone as pretty as you would be the life of any party you joined."
Her grin was as bright as her rainbow hair and her magenta eyes shown at the mention of 'recreational' chemicals.
"Really? That's so cool! Have you ever tried it on anyone? I mean, for fun, not for fighting. And, where did you get a gun full of hallucinogens?"
Eros would pay a lot to know that last answer, actually. It was likely not something made just for fun, or why would she be skulking around with it? And why make it so big and imposing looking? Still... if the effects weren't really harmful, then there was a lot of fun things you could do with them. Strange purple girl with a drug gun... seemed just like Eros' luck to run into someone like her tonight.
Naeria looked up at being called pretty, although it was mostly out of confusion. She didn't know what her appearance had to do with any events that this woman might take her to, other than the fact that she would likely have to disguise herself as human, or what it meant to be the life of the party. Hopefully she would be alive at any parties. They became terrible very quickly if people started to die.
She'd learned that on Astraya.
It was more likely, though, that this was just some human metaphor that she didn't understand.
"I could, um, try going to a party?" she said, although she did not quite sound convinced.
It was much easier to talk about her gun. It had been a labor of love, and she tilted it so that the senshi could more easily see. It had no visible barrel, just a small crystalline point on the tip where the energy was concentrated. "I made it," she said proudly, smiling as she presented it. "My specialty is studying the chemical structures of mushrooms. This one is based on one called psilocybin, but it is not technically full of hallucinogens. It just mimics the chemical structure and how it affects the brain-"
When she talked about her research, she went from stuttering to speaking too fast, and she had to cut herself off before she started giving a lecture.
"For defense, yes, but in a way that does not harm people. That was my intention in creating it."
A beat passed. She saw the bright, curious look in the woman's eyes, and she smiled back, happy to show off her research.
"Did you want to try it? It is safe."
Whimsical Blue
Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2023 4:51 pm
The small senshi smiled at the animation that lit up the stranger's face as she began to wax on about the properties of her drug gun. It was impressive that she'd made it herself, it hinted that this woman's intelligence was far beyond the normal. Sadly, Eros herself was not much above average in her own intelligence, and most of what the stranger said was lost on her. Mostly, she just understood the part where the gun mimiced the affects of mushrooms without actually needing physical chemicals. Very impressive, and honestly? Worth more money than this woman likely imagined. It sent a flutter of excitement through Eros at the sheer magnitude of what something like this could do if it were out on the market.
Hallucinogens without the side effects? ******** gold mine.
"Oh! Maybe!" She said, her head tilting coyly. "But even though its technically safe, it still sounds like you're gonna incapacitate me for while... Do you promise to take care of me until I come back to my senses? I don't want to wander out into traffic or something, and if you don't know, DC isn't really the safest place for people even on a good day."
It wasn't like Eros hadn't done shroom before, or didn't know how to handle herself on them, but there were a lot of unknowns about this woman and her self-made weapon. You always had to play it safe when the product or the dealer were an unknown... people got into bad trips that way, as she knew first hand.
Concern about safety was something that Naeria could understand. She was curious about technology and if any of the Vanguard had invented something, she would have offered herself to help them test it, but if it had been one of the humans, especially one that she had just met? She was not so sure.
This woman still seemed interested, though. She just wanted a promise.
Naeria did not understand promises. If she said something, she meant it. She did not need to say anything more to show that she was serious.
"I will take care of you," she said, nodding. Her tone was still fairly flat. Any coyness or subtext in the woman's tone was lost on her. "It should not last very long, but I will keep an eye on you, and I have food and water, if you need it."
If she accidentally made a human walk into traffic, she would not forgive herself.
"I promise."
If that was an Earth social norm that she expected, Naeria would say it.
Whimsical Blue
Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2023 6:35 pm
Eros grinned at the promise, appreciating the woman's seriousness in the face of her levity. Some people were just that way, old sticks-in-the-mud. The world took all types, after all, nothing wrong with that. The rainbow senshi would still do her best to lighten the mood, though.
"I feel very secure in your lovely hands." She said as she leaned forward impishly, looking up through thick, and fluttering, lashes. Eros grinned and winked before she straightened and danced back a few paces, spinning on one booted foot to face the other. She spread her arms wide, hips wiggling from side to side, and grinned even wider.
"Hit me with your best shot, Lovely! Lets go for a ride." She laughed.
Her lovely hands? That confused Naeria. She was getting better about understanding that sometimes, humans just had strange ways of speaking, but that one still made her think. How did you love someone's hands, right after you met them?
Was she using it as slang for beautiful? Naeria looked down at her long fingers.
It sounded kind, whatever it meant. Naeria would have to do her best to make sure that the rainbow senshi truly was not hurt. Not that she would call her weapon dangerous, but she'd given her word.
"Here it is," she said, and, raising her rifle, she fired a blast. Afterwards, she looked around to make sure that there were no cars around for the woman to walk into, just in case.
"It is interesting, yes? Sometimes I will use it on myself just to watch the colors."
Whimsical Blue
Corporal Weapon: A custom mid-size blaster, about the size of a rifle. The bolts are programmed with the chemical structure of certain mushrooms and have mild hallucinogenic properties. A single target hit with the bolt might see colors shift and lines blur for 10 seconds on impact, making it difficult for them to aim their own attacks.
Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2023 2:36 pm
The senshi braced herself, expecting some sort of... impact, or something. The stranger lifted her gun and... something happened. Something definitely shot at her, and definitely hit her.
Then the world went weird and wavey. Colors burst to life where there had been none before. Eros' mouth dropped open as she look about herself, lips curling into a delighted smile.
"Dude! This is so cool! It really is just like shrooms..." She said as she turned about. Very cool, and like she'd thought, with a lot of benefits over the physical stuff. It'd been free, for one. No side effects so far... just a buzzing head and a trippy view. She'd been prepared to enjoy this feeling for a while when it sudden began to fade, ending far sooner than she'd expected.
"Aw... it doesn't last very long?" She said as she came to a stop in her happy twirling, watching the world solidify and steady, losing its bright colors. "That's a bummer. Is there any way you can make it last longer?"
Maybe it wasn't quite as cool as she had thought... a couple of seconds was not very long.
Since Naeria had offered to watch her, she watched very closely. She would have watched anyway. So far, s he had only tested this invention on the other Velencyans. She did not think it would harm a human, but she did not know if it would affect them differently in any way.
She watched as the senshi's pupils dilated, and then narrowed again as the effects faded.
Her main complaint seemed to be that the effects did not last long enough. Naeria blinked at that.
"No. When I was designing it, I um." How did she word this? "Made it to disorient someone for a short time without harming them. I can use it multiple times, if needed." As if to demonstrate, she fired again at the senshi, who she did not think would mind.
She went silent for a long second, eyes narrowed in thought.
"If there was use for it, I might be able to design something longer lasting." She glanced to her bulky gun. "Something that is not a weapon."
Whimsical Blue
Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2024 7:16 pm
Eros shrugged brightly as she turned back to the Velencyan stranger, right in time to get zapped again. Startled, she held still as the effect passed over her, letting her eyes follow the wild, swirling colors. A chuckle left her as she shrugged, even as the colors began to fade. She hadn't exactly asked for another dose, but no harm, no foul, really.
"Its not a big deal if it doesn't last long. It does what you made it to do, which was not to be a party toy, you know?" She waved a hand dismissively as the world settled itself around her, far more gray and cold than she liked. Bright head titled, she considered the things Naeria could do with a device like that, teeth nipping at her lower lip.
"I'm sure there are plenty of people who would buy a device like that for parties." Eros watched the alien girl watching her and grinned broader, running flirty fingers through her rainbow hair. "Thanks for letting me try it, anyway. Nice, fun little diversion to my night. What were you doing out here, anyway, besides listening to that strange music? Am I distracting you from something?"
"You're welcome," said Naeria, who was at least beginning to understand the basics of Earth manners, even if her tone was flat. On the other hand, she did not understand why the senshi was staring at her like that, with her hand in her hair. It did not look like anything was stuck in her hair that needed to be removed. Was it meant to be some kind of non verbal communication?
Naeria considered this briefly, but it was not nearly as interesting as the other information she had acquired.
The humans liked this technology. They liked it enough that they would find it valuable. The senshi said that people might be willing to buy it, but Naeria was more curious to see if they might be willing to trade for it. Earth's currency was awful, but resources? Alliances?
Those things were valuable.
"Um. I was here trying to do some research," she said, and then glanced down at her gun, a thoughtful look on her face. "But I think I have found out what I need for right now." She glanced up towards the woman, remembering to smile, and even to give a small wave. "Thank you, senshi," she said.
Then she turned around back into the alley, heading back to the house as quickly as she could so that she could write down some of these new thoughts.
