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 Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2017 6:57 pm
" No! I'm not going anywhere with you, I..." He didn't recognize the young man standing before him despite the nagging sensation that he should. Something was so familiar that it sent a chill running through him. All he wanted to do was find Hartley and get out of there. "Look, I don't know who you are or how you got here, but... I'm not leaving without my friend." He shifted his grip on the cylindrical something that he'd picked up, ready and willing to swing it until he caught something strange out of the corner of his eye. The thing appeared to be an antique spyglass and it was glowing like it had been dropped in ooze. This was not how he had ever imagined becoming a teenage superhero. No Zordon, no communicator, no sudden special powers... Just a glowing antique and a sudden change in wardrobe that left him standing there suddenly feeling incredibly stuffy and restrained. "The <********>....."
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Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2017 7:09 pm
"Afton it's me." He didn't like that Aft was looking at him like he didn't recognize him. It felt strange and wrong. Then again what he was wearing felt strange and wrong and the whole situation felt strange and wrong. "We have to run before that thing comes back." The leaves, or whatever they really were, that he'd called up were starting to dissipate and he could hear the vultures wings flapping. Afton was arguing with him though and he was almost afraid that his friend was going to swing the thing in his hand at him. He was sure of that until something strange happened and someone standing in different clothes was in front of him. "A-afton?" -------------------------------------------------- Sumi huffed as Sailor Erato's magic wore off and he ran over, butting his head against the Senshi's leg. "You two can have an identity crisis later. Youma!" They needed to deal with that first despite the confusion that their glamor was likely to cause. That could be sorted out after they took care of the monster that was in their way. And in his way. The vulture screeched again once it could see it's two victims once more and lined up for another attack. As it swooped down Sumi squeaked and ducked behind the two boys. Sure he could attack it too but he couldn't aim all that well. If they could at least knock it down and make it stay still for a moment maybe then he could help.
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Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2017 7:37 pm
"Real superheroes get communicators. Real superheroes get dragonzords." He called out in frustration as he stumbled back, hand coming up to yank at the broach keeping his cravat neatly secured at his neck. He felt like he was choking, heart pounding and panic setting in. He didn't know what had just happened to him, he still didn't see Hartley anywhere, and this giant ******** monster kept flailing around. He had to stop. He had to think. The creature hadn't snatched Hartley away. He would have heard his friend scream if he had. He couldn't see Hartley anywhere, but he could see a cat and a young man that he didn't recognize who kept talking to him like he knew him. If he kept talking to him like he knew him process of elimination said that he did. That meant that the stranger was Hartley, but Hart wasn't a stranger and.... His head hurt. The stranger was Hartley. "Treat it like a video game! Take out its wings and try to ground it! Find anything you can to throw at the ******** thing." For emphasis he stooped down, going for their groceries in order to lob a pint of ice cream at the creature.
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Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2017 7:50 pm
He didn't really want to throw things at the monster, he didn't want to be anywhere near it in fact, and would have prefered his option of running away rather than trying to fight the giant thing in the sky. How were they supposed to fight a giant monster if all he could do was summon ghost leaves? He felt the air pressure as the monster swooped above them, it's talons just missing his head but catching a bit of his hair and clacking against one of the antlers on his head. The feeling was jarring and he sank to his knees for a moment. Afton throwing something else and the kitten's head butting against his thigh shook him out of it a bit and he grabbed a rock, lobbing it toward the vulture. ---------------------------------------------------- "That's the right idea!" He chirped as the knight picked up a pint of ice cream and threw it at youma. The ice cream clipped the youma in the head and it dropped out of the sky in confusion. Erato's rock missed it thanks to the sudden lack of altitude but at least now the youma was out of the air and was confused. "If you two can keep it on the ground I can destroy it. But you've got to keep it still ... i'm not all that good at this part." He had a feeling that the knight would be a little better at that if only because he seemed more angry at the youma for existing.
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Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2017 8:28 pm
"Maybe you should have thought of that before," he grunted as he snapped at the source of the voice, not realizing that he was arguing with a cat until after the fact. "Better learn to aim really fast." He scooped up one of the heavier grocery bags; this one cloth and containing the half gallon of coconut milk they'd picked up. He swung it around meteor hammer style before letting it soar through the air, satisfied only when it caught the beastly bird's body and knocked it down. ' "Now!"
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Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 5:33 pm
With the vulture on the ground Hartley scrambled to his feet, ignoring his scraped up knees for the moment, and ran over to where Afton was standing. He was incredibly tempted to hide behind his friend but he didn't know how that would come off and he didn't really want to look like a coward. But that was a giant vulture! "This stuff is supposed to happen in movies. Not in real life." He managed to keep his voice from sounding entirely whinny but not completely. -------------------------------------------------------------- Taking his chance Sumi bounded a few feet closer to the monster before concentrating. Eta had taught him how to better use his powers and he could feel his forehead getting warm a moment before a soft purple beam shot out of the star and hit the youma square in the head. The monster gave out a choked scream before it collapsed into a pile of dust. Thankfully it had been a weaker one or they might have been in trouble.
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Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 5:30 pm
He watched the laser beam shoot from the cat's head. He continued to watch as it hit the bird monster. His gaze lingered on as the bird monster became a pile of dust and it was only then that he threw his hands into the air. "Well, that's it. I'm done. ******** this..." He tugged at the gloves that he was wearing, throwing them down to the ground before making a half-assed attempt to shrug out of his jacket. His arms were stuck, likely due to the fit of the jacket-- how had he gotten it on? What had triggered the change? He yanked at the fabric again, finally shrugging out of his jacket enough to throw it down to the ground as well. "******** flying monsters, talking cats... I am not a PC in a video game that someone else is playing. My life is real, this isn't, and that didn't just happen. My life is real...."
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 4:24 pm
When the monster turned into a pile of dust he sank back to his knees with a broken off sob. His knees hurt and he could feel it now and he knew he was shaking. Things like that weren't supposed to happen. Sure you heard stories on the news about all the weird s**t but it was always happening to someone else. It didn't happen to you. Reaching up he scrubbed at his eyes. He was not going to cry god damn it. No matter how much he wanted to. Because he really wanted to. "A-Afton?" Pushing his hair out of his face he looked up trying to find his friend at the same time he felt small feet rest on his leg. "What happened ... why ... what's going on?" He knew Afton didn't have the answers, somewhere in his head, but that wasn't the part of his head that was working. ------------------------------------------- Sumi knew he wasn't the best at this but he also wasn't at all used to Sailor's freaking out and this one looked like they were going to. "Stripping out of those clothes wont help you. I mean you can but powering down will be easier and you'll go back to your other clothes." He padded over to where the senshi was before setting his paws on his thigh. "I'm sorry. I know this is a lot to take in. But that youma probably would have hurt a lot of people if it hadn't been for you two. And you helped."
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 3:16 pm
He ignore the cat as he tugged at his cummerbund, grunting in frustration as it stayed firmly in place. The page tossed his hands up in the air, taking a few steps away from the other young man and the cat. His eyes scanned the alleyway for a portal or a door that wasn't there before... Something, anything that would take him back to his world where Hartley would be waiting for him to snap the ******** out of it so they could go back to their night. There were no doors, however. There were no mystical portals back to another realm where Destiny City wasn't filled with nightmares. There was no escape... Unless... "Christ, maybe I'm dreaming. Maybe I fell and knocked my head... Or got hit with a car." The newly awakened page brought up a hand and pinched his arm, letting out a yelp as the pain set in. "Jesus--- <********>. Not dreaming, goddamnit."
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 3:45 pm
Hartley, Erato looked down at the cat resting on his lap and back up at the knight a few times before reaching up to scrub at his eyes. "I'm a ******** freak and there is a talking cat standing on my knees and i just wanted to play games and have milkshakes with Afton." He couldn't stop the whine in his voice now, hands shaking as he pushed his fingers though his hair. "This is crap. We were having such a good night." Everything had been fun and good and now it was ruined. --------------------------------------------------- Sumi huffed softly and butted his head against Erato's stomach. Eta was so much better at all this than he was. "It's alright, I promise. I can explain everything to you ... and some stuff to your knight friend. But you're not a freak you're something special!"
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 5:51 pm
He'd felt the sudden power surge of a youma from several blocks away-- strong enough of an aura that it likely would have been dangerous had two pin-pricks of light not blipped soon after. It gave him enough time to sprint in that direction, arriving on scene slightly winded in time to find the youma dusted, two distraught young men and one very familiar feline. "Sumi? Is everything alright?" He stooped down next to the white haired senshi, resting a hand gently on the young man's shoulder. "I felt the youma-- no one was hurt too badly, were they?" -- At the sound of another voice on scene he tensed, instinctively reaching for a spyglass that wasn't there. He had a strong feeling that it was something that he should find and keep on him, but he didn't know why. He was trying to rationalize why he should care about something that had magically appeared but there really wasn't anything rational about it at all. It was bullshit. This was all bullshit.
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 6:40 pm
He hadn't noticed the older man until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He tensed, afraid something else weird and dangerous had shown up. He didn't quite relax as the newcommer spoke but he didn't feel wrong and his voice was calming in a way. "I think I scraped most of the skin off my knees and I don't know what's going on or why I look funny or why there's a cat talking to me or any of this. I was supposed to get to spend the night with Afton and now it's all messed up." Hartley was babbling but he wasn't quite in a state to stop himself either. Everything was just messed up and confusing and all he wanted to do was go home and hide from it all. But he didn't know how to make it go away and he didn't think he could really pull himself up and actually run away either. The tears that he'd been holding back so far threatened to fall, eyes wet as he looked up at the stranger. Usually when bad s**t happened Afton was there to talk him down, at least he had been lately, but he couldn't do that if he was freaking out himself. ---------------------------------------------------------------- When Sumi felt Mag Mell's presence he relaxed. He'd know what to do! Mag Mell had been a knight long enough at least to know better what to do with freaked out newbies. One of them was even a knight so having Mag Mell around was better than him trying to fumble though things. "They're pretty freaked out. Or well Erato is freaked out and the knight seems to just be mad about it. I can't get either of them to calm down enough to listen and I'm trying." Erato's fingers at least were buried in his tail, scratching sightly, so he figured that he was doing something but it wasn't enough.
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 7:07 pm
"I'm guessing that's the name of your friend over there?" His brow quirked as he looked at the senshi, giving his shoulder a gentle, reassuring squeeze. "It's probably better for both of you if you hold off on using your real names-- Just until things get sorted and Sumi here talks you through how to power down, alright? Take a few deep breaths and listen to the fuzzball here while I go talk to your friend." He pushed himself up with a soft sigh after reaching over to give Sumi a light scratch behind the ear. "Got yourself a two for one tonight, Sum? Good thing you were here." He'd honestly hate to think of what might have happened to the page if Sumi hadn't been around to wake the senshi as well, just based on the aura he'd felt before the youma had been dusted. "Get him to power down while I check in on the other one." -- The 'other one' had found his spyglass and was now sitting on the ground, expanding the device and closing it repeatedly. He almost didn't notice when the white knight approached and likely would have stayed lost in his own world for a bit longer had the elder man's shadow not fallen over him. He startled, holding up the spyglass as if it would magically defend him as he shifted back along the pavement. "Stay back! I've got a.... ******** useless antique." -- That drew a soft laugh from the Cosmos knight as he held a hand out to the young man. "Give it time. It won't be useless for long... Here, let me help you up. Name's Mag Mell, Knight of Cosmos. Not sure whether or not you know your name, but I can at the very least tell you that you're a Page of Neptune. You're not the only one I've met, at least."
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 7:21 pm
"Y-yea. I think, i'm pretty sure that's him." It was a bit fuzzy but that had to be Afton. No one else had been around and he was too familiar not to be. He also didn't know what names they were supposed to be using when he didn't know any different names. Except for whatever the cat had called him. Erato? When the knight got up he looked down at the cat again while taking a few shaky breaths. The cat butted up against one of his hands and he couldn't really help the automatic reaction of scratching it's ears. Why was he supposed to be listening to a cat? "... you were talking." -------------------------------------------- He pushed himself up to sit fully in Erato's lap and managed to get the senshi to scratch his head. That at least worked with Arsinoe so he had a feeling it was going to work with everyone else. "That's because I can talk. I know I look like a cat but I'm not really. That's a longer story though." His tail swished slightly as he looked up at the senshi. "First things first. You need to get changed. Arsinoe says it feels like letting go of something but it's a bit different for everyone. When you're a little more calm." -------------------------------------------- After a few more deep breaths, each getting a bit more steady than the last, he managed to calm down enough he didn't think he was going to burst into tears if something else weird happened. He listened to the cat and tried to figure out what he was saying. Letting go of something? Closing his eyes for a moment he slowly blew out a long breath. He could feel a weird tingle but he wasn't sure how he felt it. Whatever it was he didn't want to deal with it and inched away. As he tried to draw back he felt a shiver across his skin, like a slight breeze, an when he opened his eyes his legs were once again covered in denim.
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 7:42 pm
" Bullshit. I'm not Neptune anything, I'm..." his words trailed off as he looked over to where the odd young man had been sitting on the ground with the cat. The strange was gone and sitting there on the ground was Harley. " Afton. I'm Afton Gracey." That was all it took for him to let the guise of Neptune fall away until he was just himself again. "I'm just me." His words were directed towards the weird guy in white sporting a cloak of stars. Guardian Angel? Another figment of his imagination? It didn't matter, really. What mattered was that Hart was sitting there on the ground and he looked like s**t and he was going to get up and head over there and make sure that he was alright. -- Mag Mell rolled his eyes as he reached down to tug the young man to his feet. He took a moment to dust him off before giving him a nudge back towards the cat and his friend. "Go on. Help your friend up and head home. It's been a long night for both of you. Sumi and I will make sure the two of you get home alright." Not that the kid seemed to be paying any attention to him anymore...
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