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 Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:05 pm
 The Mission
Caelyna receives a mission briefing, her first on Earth.
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:05 pm
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:07 pm
People Watching
Caelyna and Fae-Fae experience a human "mall." It is...quite a lot.
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:08 pm
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:08 pm
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:09 pm
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:10 pm
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:11 pm
Necessity
Caelyna witnesses the activation of the Vanguard's great weapon.
It is, in a word, awful.
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:12 pm
So Below
Caelyna is transported, with Lyndin and the other Cadets, to Negaspace. She does not like it one little bit.
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Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:13 pm
That Which has Been
Caelyna and the Cadets finally get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth from Lyndin. She makes her choice to remain on Earth.
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2021 5:30 pm
Will Return Again
Caelyna and the Cadets wait for news of Lyndin's meeting with Queen Laurelite.
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2022 10:38 pm
to forge
[wc: 1,051 words]
It was a slow, detailed process. But once they were settled on Earth, Caelyna set about the work.
Her little knife no longer felt like the weapon she needed. She had to make something better, and as she often did, she looked to her sister.
She knew what Velyria's weapon had been; there were awkward Cadet pictures, from when she had first crafted her weapon, and with Velyria gone, Caelyna had access to her things. It felt grim, and morbid, digging through her dead sister's belongings and looking for any information that Caelyna could use to aid herself, but she needed to see how Velyria had made her weapon, and checking her ComTech and her notes seemed the best way to learn. Her sister's scythe had been a mighty and powerful weapon, but as a Cadet, Caelyna knew that she was nowhere near ready for that; instead, she would look to the baton that Velyria had used when she was training.
Caelyna did not intend to become a mirror of her sister--that would be a waste of what made her unique as herself, she knew that much. But she did intend to become stronger. And she wanted to be more like BVelyria in as many ways as she could be. There was so much about her sister that she admired. So much she wanted to mirror. So much she wanted to be.
And the first step was taking apart her little knife, and pulling out the crystal, and taking materials to begin building anew. She'd gathered together scraps and pieces, and she had dug through her sister';s notes and files until she found Velyria's designs.
It was hard, thoughtful work. Caelyna was not usually given to this kind of thing, but tinkering was fun in its own way, and it was important to her to do this. There would be no hands but her own on her new weapon.
It was what Velyria would have done, she was fairly certain. Her sister had encouraged her to craft her own weapon by herself, and Caelyna had, that time, followed the basic blueprints the Vanguard provided for a simple little knife; she'd intended to alter it as she grew into something better and stronger, perhaps a sword or something else that would give her combat style some heft. It had seemed perfectly acceptable, when she didn't think she had anything to fear. When there was no reason to expect that she herself would be caught up in some other planet's awful, terrible, ongoing war.
And then they had come to Earth, and she had thought thy were coming as friends. That was what Caedus had told them, what Lyndin had told them, what Velyria had told her.
She remembered her sister's hands running through her hair, soothing her through a nightmare on the flight to Earth. She remembered Velyria's smile, her laugh. So few people ever saw those; outside the family, she was reserved and polite, though she was certainly warm and caring and nurturing towards the Cadets she took under her wing. Caleyna, though, knew that she still knew a different Velyria than they did; the sister she loved was not the same person they all admired.
After all, none of them had ever seen Velyria choke on her drink when their parents asked if she'd found someone nice to marry yet. None of them saw her exhausted from a long day of work, letting her guard down with her family.
None of them, Caelyna expected, had seen the way that she had looked for months before their arrival on Earth: haggard and tired and stretched far too thin. Something had galvanized her, not long before they left for Earth; knowing what she knew now, Caelyna expected that it was the Commodore's plan and the knowledge that Caedus--their Senshi--was alive.
Velyria must have known. The way she'd responded to Lyndin's actions amde that more than clear. She was not surprised. She had not flinched. She was committed to the course, and Caelyna admired her sister's conviction.
It took her a full, sleepless night. She'd meant to spread her work out over a few days, but once she got started, she found that she simply couldn't stop, assembling pieces into something new around her humming crystal. It was a good thing, she supposed, that she didn't have anywhere specific to be; flagrantly violating her usual sleeping patterns would have terrible consequences the next day, but she was willing to eat them in order to accomplish what she desired.
Her eyes flicked from her design, to Velyria's notes, and back, and finally, as the sun began to shine into her window, it was finished.
Before her on her desk lay her new weapon: a baton, charged with electrical energy. She spun it between her fingers, smiling. Its purple color matched the hair she and Velyria shared, and it felt right in her hands.
She glanced out the window; even having been here for quite some time, and having seen many a sunrise, it never ceased to amaze her how beautiful this world was in the morning.
She thought, again, of Velyria, and of her utter certainty, as her fingers brushed over her newly crafted baton. Her sister was certain that Caedus's death was the only thing that would save their world.
But Caelyna thought of the gentle man she'd shared sandwiches and talked about families with, and she found that she could not abide the prospect of snuffing out that light.
She trusted the Commodore. Velyria had. She was sure that they had looked for any other solution, but solutions were clearly few and far between. Still, Caelyna found that in her heart, she could not agree with them. She could not simply abide the idea that the only answer was more death, more suffering.
This was where she would break from Velyria, she supposed. Her sister had accepted a course of action that had sat heavy on her shoulders. One that still sat heavy on the Commodore's. And Caelyna knew trhat she could never be to him what Velyria had been--but she could do her best to ease that burden.
She could work to look forward. To find another way.
She could carry on Velyria's legacy, but do it with her own heart.
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Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2022 2:25 am
ruffle boutique
[wc: 1,010 words]
Caelyna hadn't given much thought to her choice of clothing in her human guise. She knew that she liked bright colors and swishy skirts, things that were pretty and cute and feminine, but otherwise she wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for. And did it really matter? As long as she was wearing something that was from Earth, surely that was enough. Plenty of people had bold, colorful styles!
Maybe few of them were as bold and colorful as hers, but that was fine, wasn't it? Sure, she attracted stares and strange looks, but that was surely just the nature of choosing fun, colorful attire. After all, she was here to have at least a little fun, and clothes had to be one of the things she had fun with.
She also liked walking and shopping; it was fun to duck into a store, try on a few outfits, and record pieces she liked in her ComTech for later use. Usually, she interacted as minimally as possible with the people inside; her money was usually spent on ingredients, not on clothing that could easily be created with technology, so it seemed wrong of her to take up the time of people working very hard (and it was clear that they did, especially since she had seen some atrocious behavior from human customers--surely they had to know that it was a faux pas to yell at someone who was not responsible for a problem, and yet they did it anyway!) when she was not going to be monetarily contributing to their compensation, which they clearly heartily deserved more of. But it was still fun to explore, and see all the different things Destiny City had to offer. And the city was so large, there was always somewhere new to go.
She was down a row of shops she'd never been down before when she saw it.
A window display of beautiful dresses, opulent and frilly and so, so pretty.
Caelyna gasped in delight.
The colors weren't as bold as she had become accustomed to, but that was alright; the frills and lace and poof more than made up for it. And they were in different colors and patterns, all of them bold and lovely and eye-catching, and all of them seemed to be whole coordinated outfits--ah, the very thought of it made Caelyna light up with joy.
She ducked into the store, and was greeted with even more beautiful dresses, and she had to pause to simply stare in awe. The whole building was full of elegant, pretty things, many of them with bold patterns that drew her eyes. There were blouses, and skirts, and dresses, and shoes, and accessories--oh, this place was amazing.
"I don't think I've seen you here before," a voice said, and Caelyna startled. She turned to look, and realized that the woman standing next to her must be one of the workers who helped run the store. She was wearing a very smart uniform, not nearly as frilly as the clothes, though Caelyna supposed that made sense.
"I've never been," she said. "I....don't think I've ever seen anything like this before."
"New to lolita?" The woman asked, and Caelyna nodded. "Lolita," that was what this was called. How amazing. She would have to look into it more.
"I don't think I've ever heard that word," she said. The woman blinked, and then laughed.
"Well! Let me show you around."
She took Caelyna around the store, talking to her the whole time--explaining the history, the fashion, the ways it drew from and worked beyond certain aspects of human historical fashion and made sometihng new; how it was a rebellion against standards imposed on young women in a place called "Japan"; all of it was very interesting, but truth be told, Caelyna was mostly interested in the clothes.
In the end, she selected a few outfits to try on, and scurried back into the dressing room. One by one, she let her com-tech register them, but the last one, she couldn't quite let go of. She chewed on the inside of her cheek. Surely it would be alright to use some of the Commodore's funds--just to ensure the woman was fairly compensated for the time she spent! And if Caelyna just browsed, and left without
And besides, the dress was lovely--or, well, the shop worker had explained it was called a "jumperskirt," usually worn with a "blouse," and it was from a set called "Midnight Castle" that had a very beautiful pattern--a black dress, spangled with many-colored stars, and a city drawn around the hem. There was even a pretty necklace that matched it, and a blouse, and shoes, and a bow for her braid--how was she to say no?
But she had to be smart about this. She could not take every piece of the outfit, and all of it could be recorded on her ComTech. So it was with a sigh that she put the dress, and the stockings, and the shoes, and all the other lovely, lovely pieces she had tried on back on the rack of clothes to return to the hangars--but she did pick up the necklace, a crescent moon charm made of navy resin, inlaid in gold alloy and with alloy stars over top. The necklace chain, too, was alloy, and to her delight,t here were dozens of little sparkling stars attached to it. She simply could not leave it behind; the piece was far too charming not to want to keep for herself, for real.
She picked up two of them, in fact, which seemed to delight the woman who had helped her, especially when she explained why she wanted both.
One was for herself, or course--but the other...well.
That was for someone special.
Caelyna left the shop with a broad smile on her face, ComTech loaded up with beautiful lolita outfits (or "coords," as the nice lady had told her they were called) for her to wear.
Suddenly, being interested in human fashion seemed quite a bit more worthwhile.
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