Maybe Lete was running a little bit high on the rush of having powered up to Super Senshi and finally being able to take herself to Mirrorspace without needing to rely on anybody else giving her a ride. Maybe she was really feeling herself because that most recent visit to Mirrorspace had given her so much fun to fuel her fires. There really was something intoxicating about it all. Not only about being able to claim her own realm in the Mirrorscape and getting things ready to give Demeter a nice surprise when she was free to see it, but also about Lete having two mirror-shards all to herself, free for her own use—as long as she was doing her job about draining energy.
Coincidentally, Lete did happen to be doing her job tonight. As she’d done plenty of times before, Lete had found a cute little spot in one of Destiny City’s parks where she could camp out—tonight, she’d braved the nonsensical geometries around Southside Park and taken up temporary residence on a picnic table over by the playground equipment—and dedicated herself to sending out Mirrorwraiths. Always with the caution that they should try not to drain too much from any single person—two passes, at most, but honestly, a single pass would be fine as long as they hit three targets or however many they needed to fill themselves up—but without any efforts to actually supervise them (though, since she could send out two at a time now, Lete liked to imagine that her wraiths would simply supervise each other, like a buddy system).
Frankly, powering up into a super senshi was no excuse to slack off on her duties (especially when *SOME* people were planning on abandoning the Court), and honestly, why bother changing the formula when it worked? Lete had definitely had scrapes with Order Cops who got all big girl mad about it when she set Mirrorwraiths on people, but she’d also had far more nights when she’d gotten away without any trouble. As she cracked open some reading for class on Monday, Lete hoped that tonight would be one of the latter nights, not one of the ones where Order Cops decided to Cause Problems.
Noir Songbird
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2024 12:24 pm
Sonora was starting to get used to seeing strange things in her time as a Page. As she wandered around Southside Park with her trusty little wisp friend hovering at her side, she had to admit--she was noticing a lot more people who seemed....not well. Like, a strange amount of people who looked way more tired than they sohuld. One or two, might have been a coincidence. Three or four? Definitely not one.
Chaos was supposed to drain energy or something, she was pretty sure--so maybe that was what she was seeing. The thought made her thoroughly unhappy, because Sonora did not want to get into it with someone Chaos.
"Ugh, it'd be bad vibes to just let people get drained, wouldn't it?" Sonora asked her wisp, like she didn't know the answer. Still, it bobbed up and down, almost like a little wispy nod, and she huffed a sigh and nodded right back. "Alright, yeah, let's go find who's doing this."
As it had before when she needed assurance, she felt ti press up against her cheek like a friendly cat. It made it easier to keep walking, until she spotted someone that definitely looked magical, with the telltale flowy overlays of a Dark Mirror like Murikabushi.
"Hey!" She put her hands on her hips, drawing herself up to her full (not particularly impressive) height. "Are you the one draining these people?"
She hoped, vainly, for a misunderstanding. Maybe there was no draining going on and they could laugh this off, later. But that didn't feel particularly likely.
Feeling the oncoming headache of a White Moon aura, Lete couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Why now? Why this? Why did such unfairness always have to happen to Lete when she wasn’t even doing anything wrong in any of the situations in which she ever found herself? On the positive side (she guessed), whoever was coming around to make trouble felt like they were just starting out, so she could definitely handle herself, especially after her jaunt into the Mirrorscape after getting her super-senshi glow-up.
On the down side, the little whoever-she-thought-she-was in the purple robes apparently did not feel, in Lete’s more powerful aura, a reason for her to just step off and leave well enough alone. From her perch atop the picnic table, Lete tried to play things cool by not looking up very much from the book of commentary on August Strindberg in which she was highlighting things. Enough to drink in the sight of an admittedly cute little Page—or whatever you called the basic senshi stage of those Knight guys—and arch an eyebrow at her, but not to pay her too much never mind.
“So what if I am,” Lete drawled, with all the pointed concern of a cat who looked you in the eye before knocking your immigrant grandmother’s irreplaceable heirloom ceramic doll off of a very high shelf. “Mirrorspace needs energy to function, so we borrow donations here and there. What are you gonna do about it?”
Noir Songbird
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2024 3:16 pm
Sonora frowned. Apparently, tonight, she was not getting what she wanted. But that was okay, she would figure it out anyway. She always did, and she was pretty sure that was 50% of knighthood anyway.
"It's not borrowing or donations," she said, crossing her arms. "Both of those things imply you're gonna give it back, or that people are giving it over willingly. Which you're not, and--okay, I guess the second thing might be true? Are you asking people before you drain them?" Because if she was, Sonora probably couldn't complain, that was the decision of whatever person was getting drained. You got to consent to stupid things, that was how consent worked.
But the thing was, Sonora had a feeling that this Dark Mirror was not asking people for their consent. So, she glared, as fiercely as she could manage, and waited for her answer.
The little Page in purple was not, it seemed, going to be put off by being given some attitude and regarded as someone who needed to kindly go away. Annoying, but really, what were these White Moon types if not massively annoying? And also massive, heartless sluts who seduced senshi who rightfully belonged to the Dark Mirror Court away from their intended purpose, and their real jobs, and the magical realm that really loved them? With the sole exception of Demeter—who was wonderful and perfect and had done nothing wrong ever in her life—all of these White Moon types were the same.
Well, Lete didn’t have to put up with this nonsense if she didn’t want to. And tonight, she really, really didn’t.
She only hesitated a moment, and at that, it was only so she could stash her book in her subspace pocket. Once it was out of the way, however, she locked her eyes on the little Page, traced her hand down through the air, following the curves of the Page’s face. With a mischievous giggle, she called out, “Decadent Rapture!”
Noir Songbird
Two enemies within a fifteen-foot radius feel something like a warm hand brushing down their cheeks, and then, the world around them seems to erupt in decadent sensation. For the duration of Lete’s attack, affected enemies are subjected to an onslaught of their five senses. Scents and tastes are more powerful, sounds seem louder, colors seem so vibrant that they might as well be alive, and anything that makes contact with their skin feels oppressively, suffocatingly heavy, as if the fabric of their outfit wants to choke them out or as if the slightest accidental touch should leave them with bruises. At this stage, the initial rush of pleasure from these sensations turns to pain more quickly; such decadence excites the mind, but ultimately proves to be too much. While this sensory overload deals no physical damage and strong-willed enemies can power through it to act, for the duration of Lete’s magic, affected enemies will struggle to think of anything else but the overwhelm.
This attack lasts for 35 seconds, and Lete may use it two times per battle. Any lingering effects of the sensory overload after the attack ends are up to individual players!
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2024 3:31 pm
The lack of an answer made Sonora feel pretty confident that she was 100% right and this Senshi was not ethically sourcing her energy. She was about to open her mouth to argue that, when--
A strange sensation.
A hand on her cheek.
And then the world exploded.
Everything, suddenly, was too loud, too bright. The smell of cut grass and the park's fertilizer threatened to make her vomit. Her fuku felt far too heavy, and she swore she could feel every thread of its magically-fine weave somehow, and--
She couldn't focus. Couldn't think to worry about what the Dark Mirror would do. She ran, for where she knew there was a bathroom, because she was pretty sure she was going to have to puke.
