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 Posted: Tue May 20, 2025 11:23 pm
It was late, after dark, and not a soul around. The night was clear and pleasant, quiet and calm, just how Ako preferred it before and after work. The corrupt senshi of firestorms sat atop a dome shape jungle gym, one leg extended with the other bent and her arms around it, chin resting upon her knee as she gazed up at the stars. Even before handing her soul over to Chaos, she had come here to think at night. It felt like this place somehow held all of the answers, or at least that she could be at peace enough to not care if the answers were there or not. Ako sighed softly as she heard footsteps approaching, though not feeling the signature of Order. Raising her voice to be heard as the figure approached, she spoke kindly in warning. "One shouldn't cut through parks at night without caution. It would do well to take care in the future." She turned her head to see who had come near and her smile softened. It was a boy, young enough to still be in high school by the look of it. A child, someone she refused to prey upon when it came to gathering energy.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2025 5:22 pm
Mason had stayed late at the library, with the thought of finals on his mind and the 'must be home before sunset' curfew imposed after the incident with the monster--youma--far from his mind, replaced by the concerns of a normal high school boy.
He almost could have walked right past the woman on the jungle gym, if she hadn't spoken. He had headphones in, and that covered a lot of noise, but the song was changing as she spoke, and Mason jumped in spite of himself.
"Oh," he said, a funny tone accenting the word. He took the headphones out of his ears, pausing mid-step as he considered his next move. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't a little more cautious of what he ran into at night, but this girl wasn't a monster. She was just a girl.
"Thanks," Mason said after a beat or two. "It is unsafe," Mason agreed, "but...then shouldn't you also not hang out in parks alone at night?"
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Posted: Fri May 23, 2025 7:02 pm
Ako's lips curled into a wry smile as she unfurled from her nearly curled up position. He was worried about her safety? How cute. "Oh I wouldn't worry about me." There was amusement in her voice as she stood up, hopping down gracefully from her perch. Where she landed, her footprints left small burning embers with flames dancing on them. "I can more than take care of myself. Though others like me might not be so kind to an unobservant boy wandering so close."As she stepped forward, leaving scorched footprints behind her, her features became more visible. She was older than him, though still youthful, and there was amusement in her vivid caramel eyes as she watched him. Her long hair reached below her knees, half tied up, and her bangs parted just right to show the cracked marks on her forehead that matched the ones on her chest, branding her as she was, a Corrupted Senshi.
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Posted: Fri May 23, 2025 7:47 pm
Mason blinked as she approached him, eyes darting from her figure to the - fire? that followed her footsteps?
That couldn't be a good sign.
...Nor could the gaping hole in her forehead, coupled with the black bodysuit of the fancy magical outfit. Black was bad guys, because apparently magic followed very straight-forward color-coding.
"Um," Mason said, extremely intelligently. "Thank...you?" Mason said, waffling between indignant and grateful that she, in fact, had not...blasted him with fireballs or whatever her magic abilities might be in reality.
"Does that hurt?" Mason asked, unable to keep his impulsive mouth shut, ever, even once. He pointed at his forehead, nodding to her own. "Can you, like, poke into your own brain because of that? Sometimes I think if I could just wiggle my finger around in there it would fix me," he admitted with a little chuckle.
She didn't seem like she wanted to kill him. She seemed...nice, for a...what was it Aruna had called it? Complicated? Crossed? Mason couldn't remember, but it was not a nice word. Did they have a nicer word for themselves, maybe? Mason didn't know - and he wasn't sure if he should stick around to ask.
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Posted: Fri May 23, 2025 7:55 pm
Ako laughed. A loud, genuine laugh. Oh this boy was interesting. "Would you believe you're not the first one to ask me that? No, it doesn't hurt. Nor does the one on my chest. To my understanding, none of us feel it and it's more.... symbolic, I suppose." She moved closer to him and pushed her bangs out of the way so he could see it better. "There, see? Nothing to be afraid of." His nervous shift in demeanor didn't escape her eyes and she smiled, deciding to play the long game. Perhaps if she could win his trust, she could use that to her advantage. "Think of it like... a magical tattoo of sorts. Nothing painful or scary about it at all when you think of it like that, right?" Her voice was warm and she allowed her body language to be open and inviting. "It's a common misunderstanding, it seems."
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Posted: Fri May 23, 2025 8:05 pm
Will you walk into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.
Mason wasn't sure what made that popped into his head - Madeline had read the poem to him when they were kids, and something about the way Ako approached him, smiled at him, wanted to convince him that she wasn't painful or scary.
Mason was many things, but he wasn't stupid. Or, at least, not nearly as stupid as he let most people believe. So he let his smile widen a little as she approached, raising his eyebrows curiously. It did, actually, look more like a tattoo than an actual injury, but it was still--freaky.
"Symbolic of what?" Mason asked, the slight nerves evident in his voice not at all an act. Just because she hadn't eaten him yet didn't mean she wasn't trying to wrap her tentacles around him. Er, not tentacles. Webbing. He really had to stick to one analogy.
"And also," Mason said, quickly moving around her to stomp out the tiny little embers that remained in her footsteps. "If you set stuff on fire when you walk, you shouldn't walk on the grass. The flowers and the critters that live in this park didn't do anything wrong."
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Posted: Fri May 23, 2025 8:12 pm
"The faction we belong to, mostly. Some would call those like me 'corrupt', I believe the term is. But they're sadly misguided in doing so." There was no malice in her voice, just a hint of disappointment. His comment about the grass made her laugh again. She shook her head, crouching down to demonstrate as she put her hand to the flames. "They're not real. They're an illusion of sorts. Some of us just have that ability. Passive magic for.... decoration, for lack of better words. See?" She ran her hand through it as the ember filled footsteps started to vanish. "It only lasts a little while and then it's as if it was never there." She gestured at the unmarked grass where the little flames had once been. Standing up, she brushed the front of her skirt down before giving him another warm smile.
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2025 11:07 am
Corrupt. That's what it was. Mason watched her prove to him that he wasn't about to be an inadvertent accomplice to a forest fire, eyes narrowing slightly only when she wasn't looking. When she brought her attention back to him, he gave her another smile.
"That's kinda cool," Mason said, because it kind of was. "If 'corrupt' isn't the right word..." Mason began, but was interrupted by a ding on his phone - Madeline. This time, he didn't dare leave her on read; he pulled his phone out, sent her a quick text (if I'm not home in an hour, corrupt fire girl along with a pin marking his location) and gave the woman an apologetic smile.
"Sorry about that. My sister. She worries." Mason moved back to the playground itself, settling on one of the swings as he looked at her.
"So if corrupt isn't the right word," Mason began again, ignoring the vibrations in his pocket from his now-silenced phone, "what would you call yourself? I think self-identification is more important than any labels other people try to stick on you, right?"
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2025 3:21 pm
"I definitely understand a worried sibling. I have a brother myself, and though he lives to rile me up, I know he worries for me as well. It's what siblings do, is it not?" Her smile was genuinely fond as she spoke of her brother. "As for what to call me, you may call me by my name, Ako. Those like me are called 'senshi.' No different than those who call us Corrupted. Just because we do not agree on our ideals, does not mean we are corrupt, after all." She watched him curiously, still smiling. "Though somehow I feel as if I might not be the first magical person you've met, no? You're being surprisingly calm and not asking many questions."
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2025 3:46 pm
Mason only shrugged at her assumption - he certainly wasn't going to give this Ako any more information than he could help, especially not about Aruna - especially not when he knew her real name. She could torture it out of him, if she knew what to look for, and Mason refused to even give her a toe-hold down that particular path.
"What exactly is the difference in ideals?" Mason asked, genuine curiosity coloring his voice as he began to swing, pumping his legs in and out. "Like, 'cause everybody thinks they're the good guys in their own story, right? Everybody thinks they're the hero. What're you and your guys the heroes of? What's the ideal you're supporting that the other guys aren't? Pitch me."
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2025 3:59 pm
"We are the ones who protect this planet. Those who call themselves "order"? They have no order, no organization, no leader. All they serve to do is meddle in our affairs and get in our way. They're pitiful and refuse to see the truth." Despite her dismissive tone, her words were still warm and gentle, holding no malice for those who opposed her and hers. Ako looked into the distance as if hearing something, then sighed. "Ah. It seems as if we may be interrupted soon, so I shall take my leave. Do take care in the future? There are those who would see harm come to someone who wanfere too close." With that, she inclined her head and vanished from sight, teleporting her way away.
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