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Quicksilver the Archangel
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 Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:36 am
Penelope's smile was soft, and her words may have contained just a hint of teasing as she explained, "No, not really. I just saw a rather book-shaped corner peeking out the small opening in your bag, and you told me you had gotten that new book on ghosts so... it was really jut a lucky guess."
When Harper returned with her bag, she gave a sight of relief. The prim girl was grateful that the story telling would be taking place in the safety of the office. Far less chance of getting messy there and far less chance of her hitting something important if she jumped from getting spooked. She chose to sit on the left side of the couch, close enough to one of the chairs if Harper wanted to sit in one, but also with the other half open if the other girl wanted to sit on the couch beside her friend. That seemed like the best thing to do, yes. "I don't read very many ghost stories... certainly not as many as you do. But I'll tell you if something sound familiar."
A slight edge of nervousness entered her voice at that point, but hopefully nothing that would sound out of the ordinary. Penelope had never been fond of overly scary things, though she appreciated ghost stories that tied to mythology. Now that she had become a Senshi, she had become even more easily startled. Anything scary made her think of youma. Anything in the dark could be an enemy. Unlike her, Harper was strong and fearless, confronting anything in her way with a directness that Penelope couldn't help but admire. It wasn't just the teal-haired girl's ability to stomach horror stories and games, although that was certainly a manifestation of it. It was a confidence that backed everything she did, from small things like caring for horses to larger things like helping a fellow student escape from a monster in the library. For Penelope... it was just nice to have that pillar of strength in her life.
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 10:51 pm
"'He nodded. She sighed and said "That room is haunted, one day a man and his wife checked into that room, and the man murdered the wife. But there was something different about these people: they were white all over except for their eyes, because their eyes were completely red.'"
Harper drew out the last words of the story with great melodrama, rounding out the last hour and a half or so of the macabre with the story of keyholes and ghosts. "White with Red" was a selection from online creepypasta, but Harper kept a collection of them printed and bound in a folder. At some point, the lights had all been flipped off and left the office room to be illuminated by a pair of two flashlights on a nearby table ("they're like a camp fire!") and one with each of the girls. More benignly, bowls of popcorn had also found their way to the "campsite," along with candy bars and blankets. From the opposite end of the couch, the teal-haired girl lifted her flashlight up from the pages.
"Simple, but effective. It's one of my favorites."
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:56 pm
Penelope had a very active imagination, garnered over several years of reading. Her time as a Senshi had done nothing to temper her creativity; if anything, it showed her new abominations and monsters to haunt the shadows and her nightmares. So, the imagery created from Harper's reading of the story immediately settled into her mind's eye, as she could imagine looking through a keyhole and seeing nothing but red... not realizing that a being in the darkness was staring back.
She shivered beneath her blanket and pulled it closer around her, but she couldn't keep the tremor out of her voice, "That IS effective... very spooky. I... don't suppose we could turn on the light, for a little while? Just using the flashlights is straining my eyes some..."
Yes, straining her eyes. That was the only reason to turn the light back on. Not because she was scared. Nope, not because of that at all!
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:23 pm
Harper stretched with a few pops -- her joints had stoved up from a combination of the lumpy couch and perching in a reading position. The stillness of the night outside was borderline oppressive, she thought, in how it would seem to demand stillness in kind.
"Sure, it's a good time for a break," she said, bones cooperating again as walked over to the heavy light switch and flipped it up. No pranks this time -- the lights hummed to life in the office, though far more quietly than the large barn lights. "I'm going to check in with my folks, too," Harper continued, digging out her cellphone from her backpack while she was up, "I've stayed over here late before, but like to be reassured constantly." She laughed lightly at the last remark, though she sorta thought it was a sweet trait. Even if her folks took it a little far sometimes.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:21 pm
The light was very, very welcome to the shivering girl, but it didnot stop her from burrowing deeper into her blanket. She knew it was silly--it was all just stories, told in good fun. Harper's idea of calling home, however, seemed a good one. How late had it gotten, anyway? It was very dark outside... she probably should have called a while ago!
Penelope drew out her cellphone and frowned when she had no reception. Figures. She rose from her spot with a stretch before heading towards the door, "I don't have any reception in here, so I'm going to step out for a second. My parents will probably be worried, too."
With that, the demure girl exited the room, scrolling down her contact list to find the entry for 'Mom'... and hoping she didn't see a room full of red or a horsey looking for a midnight nibble.
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 11:05 pm
"Bars drop like rocks out here," Harper confirmed. She had switched carriers just to get the one-and-a-half bars, max, that could be grabbed from inside the barn. Too many times was she either stranded or forced to become soaking wet in order to make a phone call out from under the barn's hardy roof. "Let me know if you need to go out farther, I'll go wi--"
A nauseatingly loud SLAM sounded from the side of the barn leading out to the field, its echo tinged with the sound of cracking wood. The teal haired girl stumbled on legs that didn't know where to flee; her heart skipped a beat. A few horses cried out in alarmed whinnies, their first reaction being a primal need to warn the herd. She only had a moment of startled stillness for her body to right itself, because then it was far too busy diving for a flashlight.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 11:23 pm
The horses weren't the only ones to react to the sound--Penelope shrieked whenever she heard the sound booming against the side of the barn. The frantic whinnying of the horses only added to her unease and made her drop her phone with a clatter against the ground. She didn't even try to retrieve it, instead trying to get back to where her friend was. The light from the office was a welcome beacon.
She held out her arms to ensure she didn't run into anything she couldn't see, and her call was half-whimper, "H-H-Harper? Harper, what's happening?!" Yes, the shy girl was scared, really, truly scared.
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Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:02 pm
Penelope's scream pushed her to go faster, though it was not speed that Harper needed at the moment. Luckily, the flashlights from the 'campfire' were still on, for it turned into a juggling match for Harper to keep her hands on the things between the jitters. Back in the doorway, she looked for her friend through the rural darkness that, without flashlights, was only cut by the lonely office light and a cell in the dust. She caught Penelope in the beam near her forgotten cellphone.
"Pene, are you okay?" She grasped at Penelope's outstretched arms and shoved the other flashlight into her hands. "I don't know what's going on," she admitted in a whisper. Every so often, a horse would peak its head out of a stall and anxiously nicker.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:19 pm
Penelope had never been happier to see a flashlight in her life, and she all but clung to Harper before a flashlight was forced into her hands. She bent to retrieve her cellphone, and her friend's confession that she knew nothing about it only made her bite her lip to stifle a cry.
The dark-haired girl drew herself tall, even though her knees were shaking. Could it... could it be a youma? If it was, then she would have to henshin, and how was she going to do that with Harper here?! All the same, she swallowed and struggled to gather her courage, even if her voice shook, "I... I'll go take a look. You... you have service inside the barn, so... so be ready to call the police."
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Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:46 pm
"No," Harper said, grabbing her friend tightly and perhaps a bit roughly by the arm. Her mind wasn't on pleasantries at the moment. Breathe in, breathe out, deep breaths. If Pene could pull herself together enough to go out after... whatever it was, then so could she. Her mind was rampant with the recent horror imagery from the stories, but that is all they were. Stories. Right? It occurred to her that turning on the rest of the barn lights might scare it away, but there was also a chance of 'scaring' it right into them. Besides, as scared as Harper was, she also felt the twinge of curiosity.
"I know the barn like the back of my hand. It might be nothing -- just some plank one of the hands didn't secure," she said, trying to be reassuring. "My phone's in the office. You can use it." Not sticking around for an argument, Harper set out to the back of the barn, toward the source.
That was 5 minutes ago.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 4:56 pm
One minute turned to two, and eventually to five, as Penelope sat in the office and fiddled with her friend's cellphone. Contrary to her friend's reassurances, she was getting no signal. No way to call the police or to call for any kind of help, really. She toyed with the idea of powering up, just in case, but... she sensed no Chaotic energy. Besides, she was far enough from Destiny City that it would look suspicious if a Senshi suddenly showed up. Harper wasn't stupid; she'd be able to put two and two together.
No. She would have to go alone, and without her fuku to protect her. Harper needed her. It wasn't just a matter of duty. It was personal. So, gripping her flashlight tightly, the timid girl walked in the direction of the sound, in the direction that her best friend had walked. "Harper? Harper... are you alright?"
Okay, so it was pretty much a horror movie no-no to reveal her presence, but she had a flashlight! It was SOME kind of weapon!
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 12:46 am
"You're a bad boy!" Harper chastised, wagging an angry finger at her target in the near pitch-black night. "And you're going right back to the barn."
Sudip was a snowy white gelding and he was indeed a bad boy, no matter how innocent he tried to look while nibbling on illegally obtained grass. He had apparently figured out how to escape his stall again -- probably by carefully horse-lock-picking his way out of the special clasp they had installed after finding him fancy free too many mornings. Those muzzles weren't only for grabbing up apples, and some were better than others (Sudip was Lupin the friggin III). The wooden crash they had heard was just this guy pushing his stall door open with reckless abandon as he made his escape to the back field.
And scaring the ever-loving everything out of herself and her friend, of course.
The halter slipping over his head signaled the end of his fun. Harper had turned off the flashlight by now, not wanting to risk spooking him. Working at the barn for years, the beam of light escaping from the office, and Sudip's white coat were enough for her to make do without. Besides, there was even another beam bouncing near the barn's back entrance now, too. It must be Pene. Harper smiled, rather warmed by the girl's willingness to come after her given the circumstances. Then, the smile got a little crooked.
She climbed up on Sudip's back, using the lead rope and the horse's own homing instincts as makeshift reigns. "Pene!" she yelled, not so much a warning, but an attention grabber. She clicked him into a long trot, covering the short distance with speed and thunder. If Pene liked scary stories, then she was going to love this. It was straight out of Sleepy Hollow!
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 12:47 pm
Penelope moved slowly through the barn, her eyes darting from stall to stall to insure that, yes, the horses were still there, and yes, they were still sort of watching her as she came past. She rather hoped that Harper would just step out of one of the stalls and explain that one of the equines needed something and that's why she hadn't come back yet. But no matter where she looked, no sign of the teal-haired girl. Now she was really beginning to get worried, fear and anxiety curling up in her stomach like a newly fed snake. She heard her friend's shout in response to her own, but it was hard to tell if it was a shout for help, a shout of warning, or just an... exclamation. Penelope didn't really have time to figure it out, though, as a freakin' spectral horse with a shadowy rider was heading right towards her. If she had been powered up, she could've used her shield on to protect herself from the beast. But she wasn't Sailor Pasiphae now--she was just plain, everyday Penelope Seneca, a girl who had come to an unfamiliar place with scary new animals and their big teeth and listened to one too many ghost stories for her own good and whose best friend was still MIA. Her response instead was to run SCREAMING from the animal, dropping the flashlight and trying to get back to the safety of the office. It was running into a corner, but at least it was a corner with a LOCK and a phone that might have finally decided to work. And a safe place to transform, if not.
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 9:50 pm
Bingo! In fact, it was super bingo (was that a thing?), as it looked like Pene was running all the way back into the office. Flight had won this round. Giggles bubbled up to the surface as she remembered times spent with her older brother getting spooked by video games and old horror movies. They would unconsciously dive behind random furniture or whatever was in grabbing distance and end up laughing about it after everything was over.
She slowed Sudip down to a plodding walk as they entered the barn. "Hey, Penelope~" Harper called out with a sing-song lilt, nearing the office. "You can come out now; it's just me and Sudip here! He escaped his stall again! Do you take track?" She stopped him clear of the doorway and made a gangly show of sliding off of his back without any tack.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 4:44 pm
Harper's voice penetrated the door, but Penelope still didn't open it immediately. She peeked through the smallest of cracks to try and make sure it was actually her, and when that didn't work, she actually opened it just a smidge to see the other girl getting off of the horse that had spooked her so badly. Relief rose, to some degree, but it was quickly snuffed out by other emotions.
She felt... hurt. Betrayed. She had mustered up enough courage to go out and try and help her friend, who she thought had been in terrible danger and for what? To find that it had been a trick?! To get mocked for her fear? That added a sharpness to her eyes, and a harshness to her voice as she stepped out of the office and announced, "I want to go home. Now."
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