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 Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:49 am
Things followed.  It made sense that Kirin had, dreamily, unawaredly, managed to break out and not even notice, traipsing through life as though it were a dream -- he was Rifts. He was also a he, but Astraea never liked to comment on whether or not a person was a trap. She watched, unmoved, as Sailor Foramen appeared in front of them, barely a mile away from the Barren Pines campus -- half a mile, really. "All right," said the guardian cat, not remotely giving him any time. "If you're finished -- why are you even bothering to crossdress, I have no idea, you probably wear the senshi outfit better than half our girls, I don't care -- you're going to break me into Barren Pines. We're going back." This was a little horrifying, possibly to Ophelia: Astraea had said so many bad things about it, and she was letting Kirin go back?"Oh, and you're a Sailor Senshi. You can probably Wikipedia that by now."
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:24 am
“He is rather pretty, isn't he?” Ophelia commented, before Astraea dropped a large load of bricks right on top of her tiny head.
A little horrifying? No. It was damn near devastating to the newest of the guardian cats. She jumped to her feet with blue eyes wide, regarding Astraea as though the gray feline had just grown some kind of monstrous second head. She actually placed her tiny frame between Astraea and the senshi, tail whipping behind her.
“You can't be serious...” She began, glancing first up to Kirin and then back in the direction of the school. She could feel it – hell, how could anyone not feel that – and the idea of Astraea going into that place with nothing but a very green senshi to protect her was more than a little horrifying. Of course, Ophelia didn't know what else lurked in Barren Pines, having slipped beneath the Negaverse radar. She didn't know just how important it was that Astraea saved those left inside. All she knew was that Astraea was important, every single Senshi was important.
“Astraea,” her voice was almost pleading, “If you go in there I swear I will... I will...” She paused, and her tail curled sadly around one of her back legs, “I will head-butt you a dozen times every time I see you. I will. I will pounce on you. In the name of Serenity, I swear that I will.” It was clear that she was just worried, and rightfully so!
“If Charonite is there... if Beryl is there...” Ophelia trailed off at the very thought. It was unlikely, and even she was hesitant to think that Charonite could have possibly succeeded in bringing their dead queen back to life. Still, even the possibility would surely mean Astraea's demise.
“We can't lose you. We've lost enough as it is, and we need you to be here when we find her. We need you to guide her. If you're going, I'm going with you.”
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:42 am
There were lights. Brightly coloured lights, a rush of energy, and then Foramen was standing in the snow, feeling more awake than he'd ever been in his entire life. Everything was sharper and clearer somehow. Kirin felt like he could jump tall buildings in a single bound... or some other ridiculous cliche.
But it was immediately clear: this was no dream.
Confusion reigned as the cats spoke of how pretty he was. And then Astraea mentioned the C-word. Crossdressing. Kirin looked down at himself. The dusky purple material that gleamed like expensive velvet, and the star-speckled blue fabric all went unnoticed. Kirin only had eyes for the white tunic. The white, flat tunic. Kirin couldn't even find the words to curse, gasping and crossing his arms over his chest. Of course, he had no way of knowing that the cats had been able to tell his true gender all along.
"No one else finds out about this," he snarled, then blinked at the sound of his own voice. Kirin was used to hearing his higher register - it had become natural to use it to speak, second nature. And yet when he opened his mouth, it was a tenor voice that spoke, not an alto. "What the hell?" Even when trying, it was near impossible to put on his 'female' voice. Something about the uniform or the magic was demanding Kirin show himself properly. No tricks allowed, other than the what the magic itself provided.
The glare directed at the cats intensified, something desperate and deadly stirring at the realisation that half his armour was stripped away. Perhaps the cats could discern that everything wasn't alright with this picture, with this mind. They should know better than to push a desperate person too far - or you ended up with a cornered lion instead of a housecat on the run.
"No one else," he grated out. "You don't tell them who I am, what I am, nothing. Or you can forget about me going back to Barren ********, ********, ******** Pines was the last place Kirin wanted to go back to. He'd spent what he thought were months trying to escape. His first instinct was to tell the grey feline where to shove her order to break her into the school. But this was his only bargaining chip. He wasn't about to go before anyone else without his armour - even two cats were two beings too many.
So. Kirin was willing to walk back into hell just to keep his secret. Perhaps that would impress upon the cats just how serious his demand was.
He couldn't help but close his eyes at the terms and names that followed. They conjured up images, memories, that Kirin was determined to keep locked up where they couldn't hurt him. He didn't mean for anyone to overhear him, but cats had better ears than humans after all. "I thought that was just a fairytale..."
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 2:20 am
"Congratulations, you're the latest Sleeping Beauty," snapped Astraea, and then turned back to Ophelia. Ophelia was wearing an expression of extreme worry. At least Chloe would have given her blessing to go and try to get herself killed. "Ophelia, for the Moon's sake, calm down. I will be fine. I'm more equipped than you are to go in there. This is going to be an in-and-out mission."
She wasn't even worried, herself. She'd done worse before. Hanging out in the Hillworth basements, knowing Charonite was somewhere on the premises? Was like dancing with death. "The Negaverse are leaving the campus alone for now -- I don't have to worry about them." (Oh, if she only knew.)
Attention back to Foramen. "All right," she said. "Fine. It's a swap. I won't tell anyone that you're an incredibly successful drag queen and you get me back inside that place. I don't know why you're so anxious, the Kinmo -- oh, I won't even bother with that."
Her tail was lashing now, as Ophelia opened her mouth again. "I'm going, Ophelia," she interrupted. "Do not follow me. Do not try to stop me. If I'm not back in a few hours, and I will be, consider it your duty to now awaken every admitted chump in Destiny City."
Sometimes failure sounded like bliss. The voice in her head said: That wasn't mature.
Astraea said back: shut up, when was the last time you did ANYTHING for me.
"All right, Sailor Foramen, not confirmed girl Kirin Thompson," said the cat. "We're going back." (To Titanic.)
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 2:34 am
Ophelia paused as Kirin spoke, and quite suddenly all of Astraea's grievances made infinitely more sense. She stared at Kirin, at the first senshi she had met since her awakening, as though he had just bought her a puppy and then subsequently ran over it with a harvesting tractor. Her expression shifted through the stages of grief, but did not pass to acceptance. It did not collect $200. It froze on anger, and the small cat stared at Foramen as though something had snapped.
“Oh, I'm sorry.” She spat, “Did we let the cat out of the bag on your secret, Foramen? Do you have any idea, any idea how little either of us care about your gender? You are a sailor scout. I do not care if you were born with two penises, you will do what you have to do to protect your fellow scouts and your princess.” Ophelia seemed absolutely insulted by what she perceived as extreme selfishness on Foramen's part, and she stared up at him in that condescending way that only a cat could manage.
More. Italics.
“There are more important things to deal with here than your dreams of growing up to be the prima ballerina. You are a senshi now, and I will not tolerate a senshi acting like some kind of spoiled, demanding child. Do you have any idea what is at risk? Do you have any idea what could happen to this world? You have been given a gift, an opportunity for a second chance, Foramen. So pull on your big boy pants and deal with it.”
Then, just like that, she was finished dressing Foramen down and back to being worried. There was nothing she could do, really. Astraea had made up her mind, and what the hell was Ophelia going to say to change it? She was right, after all. If anyone was going to be able to go in there, it was certainly Astraea. It took a long moment for her to accept this, but after a while she dipped her head in a nod. Again, she butted it against Astraea – and yes, she probably always would do that with other cats – and leapt up onto the top of the closest trash can. Folding her legs beneath her and her tail around her backside, Ophelia laid down upon it.
“I will wait here,” she said, “For when you come back.”
She would come back. Hell, if she didn't come back – and Ophelia gave a worried glance to Foramen at the very thought – they were <********>.
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 3:15 am
The good thing about Kirin's armour was that half of it was his ice queen personality, and that had never been in jeopardy here. And since the cat in charge was down with his deal, the other 50% of armour was back in place. Ophelia's rantings simply rolled off, water on a duck's back. Kirin had heard worse from fellow students. Ophelia might know things they didn't, but even she herself was screaming about how much she didn't care.
"Honeybunch," he addressed Ophelia without turning to look at her. His tone was cordial and polite. "******** your senshi. And ******** your prince-" He cut off with a hiss, something foreign slamming into him.
Find the Princess! Protect the Princess!
The urges flowed through him, emanating from somewhere deep inside (even though Kirin would swear aloud to anyone who asked that they were clearly coming from an outside ******** this s**t," he cursed, golden eyes flashing. "I see you lot are down with the brain re-programming, too? Fine, just another few lines for me to erase."
Kirin Thompson, aka Sailor Foramen, was no one's b***h.
"Let's go," he told Astraea. Something was humming in his veins; something wanting, waiting, to be used. Perhaps this was what Astraea was expecting of him, to get back to Barren Pines. What did she keep mentioning? "Rifts"?
He shot a look at Ophelia. "Don't get your itty bitty kitty panties in a bunch, Honey." What, she was a faint yellow-brown coloured cat and no one had bothered to introduce themselves. She was lucky he hadn't gone with an insult. "This here is a business transaction - I'm going to hold up my end. You'll get your boss back."
He didn't get their irritation at what he was asking of them. Why should it matter why he didn't want his gender or identity advertised? He had something they wanted, they had something he wanted (their silence). Why did they have such a hard time just accepting the deal?
Or did they seriously expect him to fall in line and follow their every whim? 'Gimme a break.'
"We need to be closer," he advised Astraea as the impression occurred. Whatever it was singing inside him to be let out didn't want to work across half a mile. How the hell had he gotten so far out of the grounds without realising it? Was he sleepwalking now?
He turned and began the walk through the snow, back in the direction of the school. It should have been harder in heels, and it should have been cold, but it wasn't. Kirin was aware that it was cold, but it was like it was someone else feeling it and he only received it second-hand. Magic at work?
"Anyone want to tell me what, or who, this 'princess' is?" he asked. The fact that his mind kept insisting he find her, Kirin kept to himself. Let them think he was only asking because they'd mentioned her. Let them believe they would have to work harder to get his cooperation again.
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 3:53 am
Astraea spared one last glance back to Ophelia: I will be fine. Ophelia still looked purse-mouthed and worried, though she'd been refreshingly frank on the subject of Foramen (Astraea herself didn't really care -- gender was irrelevant, not now that boys could become senshi anyway). She was sitting on the trash can. Astraea looked back.
She and Foramen were now walking down the deserted suburbia street, Foramen looking rightly and slightly dazed by how far he'd come without even realising it. New sailor senshi. They were green as cabbages. They walked away and away from Ophelia, and he was speaking --
"Not this Princess," she said. "Your Princess. Princess Serenity. Queen Serenity of the Moon." His mind was more insistent now, relieved that there was a name to the insistence. "Your queen. Nothing else matters. I don't care if you're a crocodile in a skirt. You've been called into service for Serenity."
She was terse -- well, she was ASTRAEA. "So let's hope you're not as big as a failboat as the rest of the senshi here in Destiny City. Rifts. At least you're useful."
Apparently Foramen was the Moon's b***h.
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:45 pm
“Oh, shutup and go grow a moustache,” Ophelia huffed, turning away from him and sticking her tail up in the air in a gesture of dismissal. She settled her head down upon her paws, ignoring him entirely in the way cats were exceptionally good at. Watching them go, her tail twitched nervously. There was still so much to be done, so much to remember. Without Astraea, she knew that would be nearly impossible. No, not nearly. Completely impossible.
Ophelia sighed, her breath misting in the air before her. If most of the senshi were anything like Foramen, if they were as careless and apathetic... then she certainly had her work cut out for her.
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:01 pm
As they turned and started walking away, Kirin felt one eye twitch. Even on men who weren't pretending to be girls, Kirin thought a moustache was one of the most disgusting things on this earth. And Ophelia actually liked them? Or was she just wishing him ugly? He shuddered once before turning his attention to Astraea's (extremely minimal) explanation.
The thing inside him throbbed in agreement at Astraea's description of the Moon Princess - and, most worrying of all, at what this princess was supposed to mean to Kirin. He frowned. Something was off. He was meant to be working for Princess Serenity? Okaaaay.
Protect the Princess! Find the Princess! the urge sounded again.
Kirin's spirits sank. 'Find' the princess? He was serving someone who wasn't even here? That was pathetic. That was downright...
... Actually, you know what? That was pretty ******** convenient - for Kirin. The person in charge wasn't here. Instead, there were cats trying to be in charge, but likely lacking any real power to back it up. They were using him to break into a school, after all.
A slow smirk grew on his face. Kirin didn't have to do anything at all (after keeping his end of this deal). It wasn't like there was a Moon Princess around to give him orders, after all.
Find the Princess!!
'Shut the hell up,' he mentally snapped back. He could tell this instinct business was going to get old fast. There had to be a way around it. Or just doing enough to make it shut up without actually falling in line.
"So where is she now?" he asked. "Sounds like I should pay my respects and all..."
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