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Winter Wonderland...?


It was cold.

Maris wrapped her arms around herself as she walked down the sidewalk, bent slightly into the wind. Said freezing wind whipped at the ends of her scarf, making the woolen fabric snap against her shoulders. The chill seemed to bite through to the bone even though the young woman was bundled up in a downy parka, hood pulled firmly over her blue hair.

Miserable.

The snow had long since ceased to be a novelty or beautiful - oh, maybe it was beautiful when one was inside, looking out through a frosted window to the outside world, but it was most definitely not beautiful right now. Not when it had canceled the bus she always took to get home - and not as it crunched under Maris' boots, every so often sending her flailing for balance as her feet hit slippery ice instead of yielding snow. She'd already dropped her textbooks once. And it would be at least twenty minutes until she'd make it back to her apartment. By which point she'd probably have frostbite, hypothermia, you name it...

The only faint solace was the glimmering holiday lights that had started to pop up on buildings Maris passed. She was now passing a small strip mall, and the Imperium Greetings at the end was absolutely gleaming with lights of every variety, flashing and blinking like a disco. The overall effect was most definitely over-cheerful, but the warm light - no matter how strobe-like they seemed - was welcome in the midst of snow.

Tired, Maris turned her path towards the store, ending up by the window, peering in at the useless trinkets inside. Her gaze was drawn to a small display of snowglobes. Nothing special, really - Imperium Greetings sold a million similar items. You could get practically anything inside a snowglobe.

But this one... just a normal globe, its base an opening lotus, a figure inside spreading arms wide. Nothing special.

Nothing special...

The bell on the shop door jangled as Maris pushed it open. "One of these, please," she said quietly, plucking the snowglobe out of the window display before whirling on the bored clerk. "Wrap it up tightly. If it breaks on the way home, I'll be expecting a full refund."

She drummed her gloved fingers impatiently on the counter as the clerk took her money and bundled up the snowglobe. "Thank you," she muttered as he handed it back to her along with her change. The change went back in her wallet; the boxed globe went into her purse, where it just barely fit...

... and Maris went back out into the snow, setting her jaw as she surveyed the windblown sidewalks that led towards home.



One shower, a cup of tea, and a reheated box of leftovers from TGI Thaidays later, and Maris finally felt warm again. She sat at her desk, with the latest episode discussion thread for Destiny Nights glowing on her monitor... and the boxed snowglobe next to her keyboard.

Why on earth had she bought that thing? It was a useless piece of junk. Completely useless. She had no room for useless junk in her life...

Yet, still, she unwrapped it, tilting it upside down and then upright again in one quick movement. Her fingers fumbled at the key at the base, turning it before she put the snowglobe down on the desk.

The tune that emerged, as the glittery 'snow' fell around the figure encased in glass, was surprisingly sweet. Maris stared at it. The soft progression of notes made a strange emotion rise in her heart - a melancholy. A longing.

A wish...

Maris shook her head as the song ended, the fading notes releasing their hold on her. She reached out one hand, as if to wind the key again, then stopped, letting that hand fall back to the keyboard.

Maybe she could find a place for it after all.

After the Fact

Maris fumbled the door of her apartment open. She stepped inside, her boots slopping melted snow into the small entryway. She turned on the lights. Listened. Saw nothing out of the ordinary. Heard nothing except the hum of the refrigerator, the ticking of her clock, and the distant noise of someone having a drunken party. She closed the door behind her, clicking the lock and the deadbolt shut in a series of stiff, methodical movements.

Only then did she allow herself to sag backwards, leaning heavily against the door; she pulled her scarf free of her neck and dropped it, the fabric slithering out of her grasp to puddle on the doormat. Her gloves were next, then her boots. Anyone who knew Maris would have been profoundly concerned by the pile of shed clothing left behind as she moved to flop face-down on the couch.

The couch smelled normal - clean, with overtones of Febreeze. Maris breathed in, then coughed. She fumbled for the remote, clicking it onto the eleven-o-clock news. The anchor was droning on about damage to a building about a mile away from Maris' own apartment complex. Weird marks on the side. Like something had climbed it. They were interviewing a housewife, her hair up in curlers...

She turned off the television and pulled the couch pillow over her head. So it had happened. The pen that she could feel pressing into her side, pinned in her pocket between her body and the couch, had actually transformed her into something.

Maris couldn't decide whether to be excited or terrified. Tired seemed like a decent middle ground.

A whole different world had opened up to her - one she'd kind of known had existed, from news reports just like the one on the air right now. A 'shadow war' being fought in Destiny City... but she hadn't known about the monsters. There was still so much that she didn't know... but it seemed, now, that she was expected to participate.

Sailor Adhafera... huh...

She rolled over, awkwardly, and pulled the pen out of her pocket, holding it over her so she could look at it. Spin it in her fingers, learn every bit of it both visually and by touch. The power she had used had sizzled, felt right, sang in her veins as if it had always belonged there.

She had a duty.

Very slowly, Maris began to smile - a very small smile, grim, but a smile nonetheless. Hadn't she taken out that monster in a single strike, without any help (at least in battle)? A little bit of thought, a little bit of strategy, and a bit of power intelligently applied... oh, she could more than do this.

Maris sat up, tucking the pen back into her pocket, and got up off the couch. Her purse was by the door, where she'd dropped it. After picking her winter clothes up and putting them carefully away, she retrieved her purse and dug out her small two-year organizer, finding the page for January 7th.

Meet ********* - outside SH cafeteria.

She gave the entry a long look, then nodded, satisfied.

Interlude

They were all fools.

Maris - Sailor Adhafera - had followed the snowglobe's call and found absolute chaos. There were so many of them, skirts and ribbons and weird-a** military uniforms out the wazoo, and all of them completely uncontrolled. No order, no clear leaders that she could see, just a ******** pile of 'special' people flinging power around like candy, then scrabbling over the spoils of war.

It was one of the stupidest things she'd ever seen - and if that was what she was expected to do, what ********* was going to draw her into? She wanted no part of it. Children playing at heroes, and so many of them that she wouldn't be surprised if they outnumbered the 'normal' of Destiny City by now.

When everyone's special, no one will be.

Maris scratched out the 'appointment' with ********* on January 7th, and when the day came she stayed home, going nowhere near the Sovereign Heights campus or anywhere a pesky cat might see her. Oh, she was still going to do this - the power was intoxicating, undeniably hers, and she could no more avoid using it than she could avoid breathing. Nor could she ignore the danger of the 'shadow war'. Oh, she was going to fight, all right.

But she was going to do it on her own terms.

Lone Wolf

Sailor Adhafera was well acquainted with every roof within her self-proclaimed patrol area - every roof, and every way to get up there, from powerful leaps to plain vanilla climbing. Every roof, every drop. By now, she knew the limitations of her powers quite well... and gravity was her very best friend.

Why mess with a winning formula?

Not all youma could be lured up high, of course, but enough of them would climb after a tasty morsel to keep her strategy viable. She'd killed dozens of the monsters this way, keeping to herself and running whenever she caught sight of any other 'special' people. She wanted no part of them - her way worked. She didn't need anyone else.

Currently, Sailor Adhafera was standing on a low roof, feet planted firmly as she looked down at the youma below. The creature was steaming and slavering along the sidewalk, glancing up at her angrily, apparently still debating whether to chase her or not. "Come on, b*****d," she taunted, hands on her hips. "Bring it on."

She had no idea if the youma could understand human speech, even after all this time - she didn't study them, just killed them. Sometimes taunts worked, sometimes they didn't... but the youma reared up and planted its claws on the edge of the roof, scrabbling upwards.

Good.

Adhafera turned and jumped; her long months on patrol had made her lean and nimble, steady on her feet even in precarious places. She'd earned that, through her own hard work - but it was her senshi power that allowed her leap to carry her a good two stories high, landing with precision on the upper roof of the building. She could hear the youma roar behind her, feel the structure vibrate slightly as the beast began scraping its way up to the very top. Adhafera moved to the left, just a little. Hopefully enough to lure the youma after her, while still keeping it on the edge. A two-story drop wouldn't kill it - but a four-story plunge probably would.

The youma roared again as its head peeked over the edge of the roof; Adhafera waved at it, inching further to the left. Sure enough, it crawled after her, flaking brick off the edge of the building with its claws.

Come on. Come on-

The youma heaved itself up, balanced for one instant on the very edge - and it was then that Adhafera struck, clapping her hands together and drawing out the cord of her power. "Adhafera Bind!" she cried, exultantly, feeling the power leave her, cords rushing to clap the beast's limbs to its sides. It roared in confusion, wobbled...

She rushed it, leapt, and planted both feet into its side, using her momentum to shove the youma the rest of the way off-balance while pushing herself backwards. The youma shrieked and fell, down, down-

Splat.

Adhafera hit the roof and rolled, absorbing the impact as best she could, though she hissed as new bruises made themselves known. She was always bruised these days. But the beast was dead, and victory thrilled through her along with adrenaline. One more blow for 'justice', or at least for people being able to sleep in their damn beds at night.

She powered down, laying back on the roof, now clad in her 'civilian' wear. Her heart was pounding still, but with exertion rather than fear. She'd done this so often that it had long since ceased to be 'dangerous' in her mind. Twice, three times a week, for months. Just lure them, get them up high, bind them, slap them down if needed, let gravity do the rest. Easy. And on her own terms.

A sense of deep satisfaction filled Maris as she looked up at the stars. Things didn't have to be complicated. They just had to work.

Knot Jokes Are Overrated