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 Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 4:25 pm
If she'd had the time to watch what was going on around her, Aquarius would have been impressed. And proud, despite the fact that she had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Laney could apparently fight. A handful of mock lightsaber battles did not a warrior make. She would have to reflect on it another time, though, when she didn't have her own fight ahead of her. As the more experienced of the two, it was her duty to make sure they got out of this okay.
No, forget that. It was her duty as a friend.
The last monster broke with the crazy technicolor theme the others had held, an basically looked like a giant iguana with extra spikes and frills. A green iguana, if she had to guess, which meant that its camouflage was pretty much useless in the middle of the concrete jungle that was Destiny City. Hitting that thing would be kind of dangerous unless she played her cards just right.
Aquarius knew a couple of things about lizards, and after a moment of thought, she ran towards it. The iguana, in reply, charged towards her. Before they crashed into each other, Aquarius went into a slide, as if she was playing baseball and making for home plate. Her clothes weren't suited for pulling this kind of maneuver on pavement, but she ignored the numerous scratches she could feel on her legs and back. Once she was under the lizard, she whispered "Energy Equivalence," and kicked upwards with both legs.
The iguana went flying, hitting a nearby building, and Aquarius struggled to her feet. "Come on, let's finish this," she called, moving somewhat slowly towards the monster, her speed impeded by her injuries and her increased density. Fortunately, she didn't have very far to go.
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Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 6:07 pm
Hvergelmir's carefully piled-up hair was all but ruined, now hanging in loose strands and dangling curls around her face. She reached up with one dirt-smudged hand to wipe some of the sweat off of her forehead, daubing her oily hand off on the side of her dress afterward. It was too late to look prom-ready now anyway. Besides, she'd skipped her last year of high school; she'd never been to prom. She looked over at what Tara was doing, watched her creative battle tactics. To hell with prom, anyway.
Aware that her friend was injured and, for whatever reason, moving very sluggishly, Hvergelmir rushed in to fill the battle void, running after the injured iguana-monster so it couldn't get away. Moving faster, she beat Tara to it, wrapping her arms around it by the shoulders to latch on, using her weight to pin it in place. It sank to the ground, trying to twist itself about to claw her off of its back with its little, lizardy arms. Hvergelmir couldn't really get a better grip on it, but she could probably keep it in place long enough for Tara to come finish it off.
Then it'll be over, she thought, which of course she knew wasn't really true. But it was something to believe, anyway. Then it would be over.
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Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 6:32 pm
Doing this in a team wasn't so bad. Except for the worry and the guilt and the fact that doing it at all sucked. Still, Aquarius felt considerably less terrified of this battle. The fact that they had managed to turn the tide probably had something to do with it. Not to mention the fact that at this point, her conscious mind was off screaming in a corner of her brain, and adrenaline had taken the reins.
She was just a few steps away from the lizard-iguana-monster thing, and each of those steps took a bit more out of her than she liked. Two more... one more... then, finally she was within striking distance. With her power still active, one punch from her good arm was enough to turn the spasming creature into dust, leaving the area blissfully free of chaotic auras, for the moment at least.
"And don't come back," Aquarius grumbled. Too worn out, both mentally and physically, to stay standing, she let herself fall backwards into the pile of youma dust. It hadn't occurred to her that doing something like that while her power was active was a bad idea. Rather than landing bumpily, yet safely, her body slammed against the ground with a loud "thud," creating an Aquarius-shaped dent in the pavement. Dust flew into the air, making it impossible to see clearly. Her whole body stiffened from the impact, but aside from a few bruises, wasn't really harmed by the incident.
Still on the ground, she turned her head to the side, the long white-and-blue gown she was looking for barely visible in the dust cloud. "This concludes our first lesson in How To Be a Costumed Superhero." She coughed and waved dust motes away from her face. "Are you okay?"
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Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 9:22 am
Hvergelmir blinked a few times at her friend's unceremonious fall, and then at the way the pavement cracked and gave beneath her, rather than Tara seeming to take any damage.
For Aquarius, the concept of battle might well have been just frequent enough to feel miserably old-hat and embittering, but Hvergelmir had never done anything like this before. Her whole world felt like it had toppled over onto its side, and things had gone from what she believed in to what she knew. There was some sort of . . . demon gloop on her hands, blood-like residue of the things they'd defeated which had otherwise turned to dust and disappeared. She looked down at her sticky hands vacantly for a few minutes longer, till she belatedly realized Tara was speaking to her.
Hvergelmir looked over at her for a few long heartbeats. Then, without a word, she sank to her knees next to Tara and threw both arms around her best friend, silently holding onto her like a lifeline.
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Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 1:42 pm
Aquarius wanted nothing more than to go home, take a shower, and sleep for about fifty years. To pretend this had never happened. It was just, she tried to tell herself, business as usual. It wasn't the thing she had never known that she feared most. More than dying (again) or being corrupted or forced to fight a thousand enemies, she feared her loved ones getting caught up in what she thought of as "her" battle.
Now, the fight was over, but she faced another one, as she tried to deal with her feelings. She stiffened even more when Laney came over and hugged her, not at all prepared to deal with the aftermath of what had happened. Her body was still unusually dense from her magic, and Laney would feel like she was hugging a statue. Then, all at once, she was a squishy human again, hugging back and sobbing and trying not to go into hysterics, without much hope of success.
"It's all my fault," Aquarius wailed, wiping her eyes and nose on her hood. The adrenaline that had carried her through the battle was gone, the burst of courage forgotten. "If... if I'd just been strong enough, you wouldn't have to do any of this. And now-!"
Once you awakened to your power, there were no takebacks. That was one of the few lessons that she had actually learned, eventually, instead of blocking out.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please..." Please don't hate me, Aquarius thought, but couldn't say, as if speaking her request aloud would ensure its refusal.
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Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 3:38 pm
Hvergelmir hold on tight, and when Tara's skin turned back to its normal state, she squeezed on that much tighter. Tara's emotional response struck an arrow through her heart, and opened up the floodgates of Laney's own emotions, which had been stalled a bit by the shock of the whole thing.
"Don't you do that," she stammered out, her voice cracking left and right through a sudden onset of tears and sobbing. "Don't do that to me. I don't want to . . . to sleep my way through your life again. Don't -- don't make me do that. If this is what you're doing -- if this is what you are -- then I want to be that too. I don't care that I was scared," she said into Tara's hood, her tears soaking a damp patch in the cloth. Her nose was getting a little runny, and she made a pass at it with her hand. "I can be brave, you'll see. But if this is what you were meant to do, then I'm going to be here to do it with you."
She pulled away, her hands on Tara's shoulders and squeezing intently.
"You weren't meant to be alone. I'm your friend, Tara."
Inwardly, she couldn't fight her own rising panic. Tara, in this case, wasn't the only one terrified of disappointing: Laney had no idea how to fix her friend's reaction, and it was sending her into a tizzy. I'll do anything for you, Tara, absolutely anything, she wanted to beg. Just please don't tell me you don't think I'm good enough to help. Please don't tell me to sit down and behave myself and let someone else do the grownup work. You're the only one who always believed in me. You're the only one who thinks I'll amount to anything. Please don't pull away.
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Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 7:04 pm
Somehow, the fact that the entire world wasn't coming to an end was surprising. Whenever Aquarius had imagined someone she knew becoming involved in the war, it was usually accompanied by screaming and accusations and misunderstandings, shortly followed by violence. None of that was happening. That didn't mean that it wouldn't, but it seemed like her fears of being turned on because of the part she played were at least partially unfounded. Laney didn't hate her. But then, Laney had always been exceptional.
Slowly, her sobs quieted, her breathing returned to a normal rate, and her heart stopped trying to fight its way out of her chest. She nodded in response to Laney's reassurances, not trusting herself to speak again just yet. Quickly, she reassessed the situation. They were alive. Laney didn't hate her. The world was still far from perfect, but for now, Aquarius could take that as a victory.
And hey, at least now she had someone else to confide in.
"Wow... we really need to talk about this." There was so much that Laney needed to know. And now that she had time to think about it, a lot that Aquarius needed to know as well. Like what Laney was- her outfit looked like nothing worn by any senshi or knight she'd ever seen. Considering the lack of cat and henshin pen involved, she doubted this was a senshi thing, but her knowledge about knights was mostly hearsay and riddled with holes. If Laney was a knight, Aquarius couldn't provide her with much information as to what knights did. But she could try.
Doing a discussion there, at the scene of the battle, was just asking for trouble. Aquarius didn't want to go home right then, or to Laney's house, even if that was an option. But there was one other place that could work. It would be safe, if a bit shocking- but was it really any more shocking than what had just happened? Probably not.
Carefully, Aquarius struggled to her feet and pulled out her phone, still keeping her other arm around Laney. "I don't think we should talk here, just in case. And there's something I'd like to show you. So, um." What was the best way to handle this? "Close your eyes and keep holding on. I'll let you know when you can look."
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 12:57 pm
The worst of Aquarius's fears may have been momentarily allayed, but for Hvergelmir, everything was still new and utterly immense and terrifying. Her tears kept coming, even though Tara was reassuring her; she didn't know what was going to happen from now on in her life, or what any of it was going to mean. Her world looked nothing like it had this morning, and she had nothing to hold onto in this new life but Tara. So she did, because she couldn't have let go of Tara right now if she'd wanted to. Hvergelmir closed her eyes and held onto the one thing in the world she trusted most.
Everything else was unimportant.
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