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 Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 6:46 pm
There was a youma around, and Lysithea just hoped that she would be able to get to it before it found anyone else, but the damn thing was hiding and…well, honestly? She hated that.
The fact that she heard a second set of footsteps coming towards both herself and the hidden youma made her wish that whoever it was would just…vanish into a store…even if everything around here was closed...she still had hope...but. Alas. The girl came into view and Lysithea sighed. “You…might want to just turn around and run? That isn’t me threatening you, but there’s a literal monster near here and I don’t want you to get hurt,”
Of course, she sounded like nothing more than a crazy person by saying such things…though the youma did seem to at least be wanting to make her seem less crazy by choosing that moment to come out of hiding, jumping towards Lysithea with a strange croak like growl.
It…was shaped like a frog, though had sharp talons coming out of the webbed toes and had far too many eyes for comfort. And the mouth on the creature was the entire head, and with another bellow, it clamped onto Lysithea’s arm.
With a cry of pain, Lysiteha looked at the person with a pleading grimace. “Please, run?”
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 8:42 pm
“Nah,” Marley said, in the one insincere tone they’d managed to perfect the best over time, and then “I can’t run,” as faux-sympathetic as it was possible to be. It wasn’t exactly a lie. Running ******** hurt, they were already having a bad night, and the last thing they were about to do was listen to a random stranger, especially a random stranger who was doing her best to really get into a froufrou sparkle princess vibe a lot too early for Halloween. Even if she was right. Especially if she was right! Because this was Destiny City, and little mawheaded garbage disposals going after limbs like that one right there were a great way to get yourself maimed or killed or even just - at least - hurt.
It would’ve been so goddamn smart to walk away, or run away, but that would’ve also been admitting she was right, and that was totally not okay. He’d die mad about the whole thing if he had to, but he’d die vitriolic and a little buzzed, and that was really what mattered in the long run. “Just slam it into the wall or something?”
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 8:50 pm
If her arm hadn’t been in such pain, Lysithea might have laughed. Honestly, it was a situation where laughter might be acceptable but…the idea of just…bashing the youma into the wall and leaving...sounded pretty acceptable.
But. Lysithea couldn’t do something like that.
…The leaving bit. The smashing the youma into the wall was done rather easily, and the noise of relief that escaped was loud enough for the stranger to hear. Of course, it didn’t dust the damn thing, and as Lysithea was examining her arm, the youma took a few wobbly steps and then gave a wet gurgle before running at the civilian, tiny webbed arms held aloft, talons extended.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 8:52 pm
Marley saw the thing coming for it. Marley stepped back. Marley stumbled, because its legs felt like garbage slabs of barely held together meat on the best days and this was not one of its best days, and also because it was a little drunk, and almost slammed its head into an alleyway wall on the way down. Another couple of runs in its tights for the sake of authentic scuffed fashion, if nothing ********>” he said, with as much vitriol and fury as possible, and groped around blindly on the ground. A bottle. Something. Anything. He didn’t have enough meat on his bones regardless, goddamn monsters eating the rest off would be a big problem.
That was - who was tossing nice flowers on the ground here? Hell, there had to be better places for the things. Some florist somewhere was crying. Marley’s fingers curled around the velvety stem of the bluebell for just a moment, hooked it between their pinky and their ring finger, and that was
that was enough.
It didn’t really feel like anything, but suddenly Marley wasn’t wearing that maltreated seifuku. This was something else. Something pastel, and elegant, and with draping sleeves.
“What the hell,” Lukomorye, Page of Lysithea said, and reflexively kicked the youma in the head with a bitten-off noise of pain.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 8:53 pm
Lysiteha stared as the change happened, her mouth falling open slightly as she took in the sight of the brand new Page…and when her eyes lingered for a moment on the very familiar symbol, she swallowed and felt as though she had gained some sort of a second wind, moving towards the youma who, by now was looking rather dazed from the combined blows that they had each done to it, and with absolutely no elegance, Lysithea stomped down hard on the creature, and with a wet squelching sound, it turned to a small pile of dust.
“Well...hi there. That. Are you okay? That was a good kick you gave it…ah…” Her arm was throbbing, but still, Lysithea managed a real smile as she looked the new Page over. “...You’ve…become a Page…ah. One of mine, by the looks of it. It’s a pleasure to meet you…”
Was it a bit much? Oh, absolutely. But…honestly, Lysithea couldn’t think of anything else to say.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 8:54 pm
Lukomorye’s gaze might’ve burnt a hole through the wall. Even confused, there was something furious about it, fever-bright. “The hell are you,” they said, and “the <********> is a Page.” One of hers? She had to be having some sort of laugh. It had been well-established in their life, to their face, that Marley didn’t belong anywhere or to anyone, and since they were obviously trying for that anyway--
He was. It didn’t matter. The repetitive language was maybe a little out of character for him, there were so many better ways to screw with someone than any kind of standard swear, but he was angry - not new, never new, a painful-consistent state of being and always-just-angry at the world - and frustrated, and confused, and again more than a little buzzed. What’s-her-face wasn’t exactly a drunk girl crying in the bathroom at three AM, and unfortunately neither was Marley, for whatever little that was worth.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 8:55 pm
“Um…I’m Lysithea, Sailor Lysithea…it’s…magic? Okay so there’s this war going on in the city and…the thing that attacked us is called a youma and it…ah, wait. Are you hurt? I have healing magic and I’m happy to help.”
It didn’t work on her own injuries but, that was fine. This would heal, and it would give someone at home the excuse to fuss over her a bit…and perhaps she’d even allow it.
“You’re what’s called a Page, it’s…the first stage in working your way to a Knight…so, you have a weapon right now…ah…that flower, it looks like. It’s very pretty.”
Useless, as all Page weapons tended to be but…
“It’ll change as you grow, and you’ll get magic and oh! You have a place up in space, it’s called your Wonder, and I bet it’s lovely.”
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 8:56 pm
“I’m fine.” It wasn’t particularly convincing, given his white-knuckled grip on the wall as he got back up and the way his legs shook, but the anger in it was venomous enough and the tense set of his shoulders was only a partially-exaggerated fury. People learned not to ask eventually. Sometimes it only took a few sentences, if he was particularly lucky. “I’ve lived in this godforsaken city for years. You think I don’t know what a monster is?”
Still. It couldn’t convince itself to walk away. And that had been less angry than the I’m fine had been. Some things couldn’t be explained by hallucination or illusion or by lucid dreams. Sure, nobody like Marley would ever be special, would ever be anything worth considering, would ever be --
But what if?
Lukomorye’s fingers curled around the bluebell, tightly, holding it close to their chest. This was fresh and real and indescribable and maybe just for once it would be okay. Maybe something nice could happen.
“What’s the catch.”
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 8:59 pm
“Catch?” Lysithea glanced at the Page and gave a smile that faltered just slightly. “I mean…there’s not really a catch, you’re just…it’s what you’re born to be…you don’t have to do anything that you don’t wish to, though. But, you’re special…so…”
She sighed. “I suppose the only ‘catch’ is the fact that it’s dangerous. You’ll be fighting monsters like the one we just dealt with…and there’s other monsters who are just humans. I won’t sugar coat it…this is a war, magical or not…but. You’ve got me, I’ll always be around if you need me, and I have a whole group who will be thrilled to meet you, I bet. I know a few other Lysithea knights too and I’d be happy to get you in contact with them.”
Looking thoughtful, Lysithea’s smile brightened. “That’s the one thing that I can promise, is that you won’t be alone in this. Not ever. Even if you decide that fighting isn’t for you, I hope that we can be friends regardless.”
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 9:00 pm
“There’s always a catch.” There was the vitriol again - are you stupid? Why don’t you know this? - but it vanished quickly enough when she went on to talk about the danger. That, at least, transcribed to the way the world worked as Marley understood it. Or the way it worked for them, anyway. And it was so, so, so ******** pathetic that their fingers started to shake, when she said you won’t be alone in this, not ever, but they were going to blame it on their buzz and the magic and anything that meant it wasn’t intrinsically them. It sounded nice. It really did sound nice. The appeal, as always, of meeting people who didn’t know Everything Wrong With Marley, or who hadn’t repeatedly seen Marley intentionally make just about the worst decisions possible and be the messiest b***h on purpose, or who hadn’t -- heard anything. About it.
“I -- sure. You can get me in contact with them, or whatever.” He tried to sound disaffected, and he knew it wasn’t working.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 9:01 pm
Finally, Lysithea looked fully relaxed and a little bit excited. “Absolutely I will. Can I take you out for food or something? I can answer any questions that you have and we can get to know one another a little? And then…oh!” Her eyes were sparkling. “I can take you up to Space if you want. Tomorrow we can take a picnic up to Lysithea so that you can see it! I’m so excited to get to know you.”
Watching the Page for a moment, she shook her head, feeling a little silly. “If you focus, you can tell what your name is, I don’t just want to keep calling you Page, that’s a little silly…and when you’ve done that…if you just think of yourself, your normal self. Clothing anything that makes you you, outside of your Page form, you’ll go back to it, and then we can go grab a bite!”
Hesitating a moment, Lysithea let her powered form fade, after making sure there were no unsavory auras in the area and stood there as Talia afterwards, looking…normal. “See?”
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 9:05 pm
It was there in the back of his mind, with the same kind of certainty he knew his birthday, and it should’ve been harder to pronounce (what was that? Russian?) but his tongue knew the shape of it like it’d always been there. “Lukomorye,” the Page in question said, abruptly, and made a face after they’d said it. “That’s -- that’s it.” The hell kind of name was that? Sure, though, okay. If it was going to take everything else in stride, because even if everything else was a delusion or a nightmare it wasn’t unpleasant, if could cope with having some bizarre Russian name spontaneously beamed into its mind from space or magic or space magic or. Whatever.
And speaking of space magic -- he focused on Marley, on ripped tights and overcomplicated platform boots and the knee braces he should’ve been wearing but had, like an idiot, decided he didn’t need to wear today -- and the whole pastel uniform of Lukomorye fell away into glitter and nothing. “I’m Marley,” they rushed out before she could say anything, stumbling over their own words.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2025 9:07 pm
Talia looked so utterly pleased and hesitated for just a second before she flung her arms around Marley, just so happy that she was able to be a part of the awakening of yet another of her own.
“I’m Talia! I’m so excited to meet you! Come on, Marley! Tell me what kind of food you want, and we’ll go stuff ourselves while you think of whatever you want to ask me! I’m sure there’s questions, and if there isn’t…I’m sure that there will be!”
Removing herself from the civilian, she gave a pleased smile, eager to see what Marley wanted to do…and eager to play host, once again.
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