Of course. He was the lion tamer, with the blue hair. He was very serious, and very hard to miss, although she didn't cross paths with him very often. This was his animal, wasn't it?
Even the trapeze artist half of her knew that wasn't quite right. She watched a glob of black ooze drip from the monster's chin as a few people were already breaking off to try to attack. Their outfits flicked back to circus garb, but the monster stayed. There wasn't time to find safety for just Suri. She had seconds, if she was lucky, before claws found flesh and people started dying.
"You should look," she said, slipping her hand free while she tried to guide Suri towards the door as much as she could. "I'm going to try to slow it down."
She ducked back into what had been the tangle of curtains, which was now much flatter and as good as she was getting for a place to power up. She fished out her pen, whispered her henshin, and ran back out as an Eternal Senshi.
It felt better. Things matched up slightly more. There was no gown, although she was back to not being sure if she was wearing shoes. "Cybele Hunter's Strike," she called out, and aimed her new magic straight at the youma.
AMItotic
Whimsical Blue
Mention
Eternal Sailor Attack: Hunter's Strike An ethereal bow forms in Cybele's hands. Five arrows form this time, and now she can use them to hit enemies. She can aim at a single enemy with a range of 15 feet. They will have no effect on people within five feet of her, however. The arrows will spread out over a small area of about two feet in diameter. It's mostly a single target attack, but could possibly hit two people with a little timing. It's somewhat hard to aim a bow with five arrows on the string, though. If they hit, they will do about as much damage as a dart, including scratches, pricks, and slightly more serious stabs. It could be fairly serious depending on where they hit, though. The aim on this attack is not great, at best one or two will hit the main part of the body. The rest will hit limbs, be scratches or miss completely. It's possible to outrun. The arrows dissolve as soon as they hit anything, so the attack can also be blocked. She can use this attack twice per battle, but it drains her. If she uses it once, she will feel as if she's sprinted a short way. She'll be tired, noticeably a little bit slower but not heavily impacted. If she uses it twice she will be tired, able to fight but just barely. She'll be less responsive, just basically really tired.
Kenzie was not at all sure of how she ended up on this floor of the building. She remembered being shuffled along with everyone else, and she knew she walked up the stairs. But... Wasn't she just on the stairs a second ago? How did she get all the way to the fourth floor without any knowledge of it happening? She glanced down at the half-empty glass in her hands before moving a hard pink gaze upwards, softening as she settled upon the dance floor and DJ booth. It made sense, that she was here of all places. Maybe she had retreated to the top floor on purpose, though it was unlike her to have so much to drink that she couldn't recall doing so. No, she was sure she was sober. This was only her first drink, afterall. Did that random guy spike it? Her fist clenched around the cold, slightly wet from condensation glass- if he did something, he would regret it later. Vanadinite did not take well to men being douche bags.
As her mind swirled, she questioned it for a moment. And then the petite woman was clad in a sparkly outfit made of silk and lyra that reminded her of something she would've wore in a dance recital. But dance... No, this wasn't for dance. This was something more, though her need and drive to perform felt the same. Was this another life? Was she destined to be this person all along? All she knew was that she felt a desperate need to climb, and feel the thrill of the height and the cool air on her face. To be one with her wire.
No where was her way up? Her brows furrowed in frustration at the idea of someone toying with her place.
She felt the ground shake with the weight and stomp of Lion-like youma before she saw it. Turning delicately on a heel, she turned to face it - her eyes had to blink a few times in order to try and focus to no avail. Where were all of the tamers? How did they let one of their beasts out of its cage? How careless! Her anger began to bubble under the surface, her impatience taking over because now the show would be delayed. Great. She didn't have time for delays! The show must go on, but she was sure that didn’t count when there was a lion loose in the Ringmaster’s circle.
No. This was no circus, she tried to remind herself. In an attempt to cement herself in actual reality, Mackenzie slipped easily into her other half. She shivered as her Lieutenant's garb came over her and she rolled her shoulders and balled her fists. This was better. This was comfortable. This was real.
Lt. Vanadinite didn't bother to call her weapon to her hand, as she considered her ring utterly useless. Instead she grabbed a bottle of liquor from the bar, smashed it over the edge and went at the lion youma with her new-found, much improved weapon of choice.
There wasn’t much of a chance to mull over the mysterious crystal she’d plucked off the ground. Not when a lion, a mockery of her Juliet, appeared as if from nowhere. “You’ve got to be ******** kidding me, “ Amphitrite hissed as it began to attack, because while she knew full well that youma didn’t take well to senshi, even her kind, it didn’t excuse the abundance of violence she’d been facing lately from people ON HER SIDE.
Even so, her rage sputtered in and out like a bad TV signal - the youma had done something. Intensified the other life. Amphitrite’s eyes half-glazed over as it consumed her, and she remembered - she remembered falling in love with Niss, the adoration coming to her as easily as breathing, although she hadn’t wanted to admit to it at first. Didn’t want his ego to get too big. But she’d held him after the loss of his companion, kissed and soothed his scar, walked down the aisle with Juliet by her side to meet Niss there, dressed in a tuxedo and with a smile on his face that had been more precious than gold.
A bitter taste laid itself down onto her tongue, realizing that while she had been in danger of it before - in his life, she had not been tortured. She had not had her starseed violated. She had not ******** anyone she didn’t give a s**t about to try and wash away the taint, the ache of having a man’s hand in her chest. This was a life where none of this had happened, where she had people who had loved her, a family, a home.
But it was a stain that persisted. She could not forget, she could not unmake it, and she was angry that whatever this was had the audacity to do this to her. Her memories were her own, built atop bloodied fragments - this would NOT stand. She shrieked, suddenly, trying to get herself away from the youma, but not without striking it.
She was used to her magic making the world snap into focus so that it felt like she could take on her prey. This new attack was different. It took something out of her, instead, making her feel like she'd done more than just call out a phrase and shoot a few weightless arrows. Her breath didn't come quite as easily. That was something she'd have to remember.
The memories washed over her again. She thought about lions, now. She'd always liked watching them when she was doing her stretches. Another memory hit her harder, and made her feel almost like she was at the edge of a burning building. It was of a different kind of circus, a roller coaster platform where a youma not so different from this one had tried to take off her head. Her head spinning again, Cybele peered down to where the claw scars still striped her shoulder.
Right.
She tried her best to bite back any memories at all. She was getting more into fight mode, and she found herself charging, taking a swing at the youma.
There was no time to ponder the mysterious crystal-like object Amphi had found. They were, in what should not have been a surprising turn of event as this point, and attack on the congregated masses. This time a youma, a lion, and wasn't that just a punch to the gut at this point?
Niss could feel his patients waning, and as the corrupted senshi at his side surged to her feet to strike out he was there with her, a step behind, but not quite so on point.
For his efforts he got a claw to the arm and the room around his shattered again, replaced by the gasps of a crowd and the growling roar of the big cat beside him as he held his arm to hide the bleeding. It was nothing. He'd had worse.
In a blink the scene shifted: After the show, sitting at one of the numerous tables with a first aid kit beside him and soft, warm hands wrapping gauze gently around the his arm. He looked up in time to catch her watching him. To see a quick smile pull at those full lips before she was looking back down at what she was doing.
frayedflower
Beejoux
Wrathful Demigod
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AMItotic
Nebulous Trash
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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 7:54 pm
Suri Ellis HP: 13/15 Damage: Not attempted Boss HP: 28
Suri didn't want to be left alone, not so soon after finding one of her partners. But just like the bars, letting go was the first step of any leap. It would not do to be afraid, to hold onto Fleur like dead weight, and so she nodded, even though her expression was scrunched and concerned. "Be safe," she called out, and then she turned away, looking for the shock of blue hair that might alert her to her lion tamer acquaintance. She could have sworn she'd heard him earlier, but there was no sight of him in the ring, just protesters fighting off the lion, hurting him. There was no time to lose--if something didn't change soon, someone was going to end up dead.
"Trey--?" Suri started to walk, to jog, even though her stride was stilted by the limits on her prosthetic, on the clothes that she wore. Her head swivelled, looking for some way to get away from the protesters and into the air--were all of the ladders missing, that made no sense--
Suri collapsed to her knees, clutching at her head. Whatever the voice was, it rattled around in her lungs and her bones, making it impossible to think, to breathe. What had she done? Had she--?
stari_maga
Whimsical Blue
kuropeco
Whimsical Blue rolled 1 8-sided dice:
7Total: 7 (1-8)
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 8:11 pm
Trey Cameron (First stagers: 20 HP / 1d8 -2 DMG) HP: 11/15 Damage: 5 Boss HP: 23/50
Fafnir pushed off the wall and grimaced, his shoulder smarting. The monster felt like a youma, when he concentrated on it, but that didn't really make things any better. He wasn't an officer, and he was especially not an officer of rank, so he was at as much danger as anyone else here. The youma was not going to listen to him.
Suri though. It would listen to Suri. She was a General, it had to listen.
Suri's a trapeze artist, though. She doesn't work with lions. She wouldn't know the first thing to do with one... His mind insisted. It was such an incongruous thought. Zircon was strong. Powerful. She might not be Labyrinthite, but she had still made it up the ranks. He'd always found it hard to really see her in the same light as Laby though... to feel the respect and fear her subordinates had for her. She was Suri, for god's sake...
A lunge by the youma knocked him back and Fafnir groaned as he hit the floor, the air knocked out of him for a moment. With the beast above him, he kicked out hard with both feet, smacking solidly into its goopy, dark color chest to push it off and away. A roll and he was on his knees again, and then into a crouch, hair trailing behind him. It had other distractions to deal with, giving him just a moment of space... and he finally, finally caught sight of Suri.
She was across the room, kneeling on the floor like he was, but her head was in her hands and her face was contorted with... pain? Confusion? Something... which did not bode well for anyone in this room.
"Suri!" He called over the shouts and crashes around them. "Hey!"
His voice blended into the chaotic noise and was lost, as far as he could tell. He was going to need to get closer, but with the beast thrashing about, that was a tall order. On the watch for more lunges in his direction, Fafnir crept along the wall, circling to get closer to the only person here that he knew.
Megumi Himura Shiroyama Page of Mars HP: 18/20 Dmg: 1 Boss HP: 22/50
Megumi groaned, and reached up to grip the sides of her head. Nothing felt right, anymore, or made sense. There was, in front of her, a melting lion monster, and she was no longer certain what was reality and what was a dream. Was it what she saw when she opened her eyes, the world of the circus, the world where she should be getting ready to practice her trapeze act? Where she should be taking a moment to check in with her brother, because he might have ideas?
Or was it the one where she was a private detective, and this was a party, and Taiki was downstairs and he was certainly not a ringmaster--
She opened her eyes again, and there in front of her, was an arrow. Blunted, familiar from her kyudo practice, but somehow strange.
It must have been more of the hallucination, or whatever was happening to her--but she reached out anyway, and curled her fingers around it, because it sang to some part of her soul, more appealing than any siren.
As her fingers curled around it, the song in her soul crescendoed, and Megumi was changed.
Shiroyama of Mars, her heart called, and she wasn't sure if this was a dream or not, but she struck out with the arrow, aiming to wound the monster in front of her.
staripop rolled 1 12-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-12)
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:37 pm
Eternal Sailor Cybele HP: 24 Youma HP: 20
The youma did not take easily to her getting close. She was dodging just it's thrashing, and other bodies, too. It was getting crowded up by here.
Good.
There were more Chaos auras around than Order, she thought, which made her grind her back teeth together tighter. Her bangs were starting to stick to her forehead now, and her breath came hard.
She was thinking too hard about everyone else. A stray claw came at her, and tore through straight through her skirt and a bit of her thigh. She hissed before the pain even hit and swung another fist, but she was off balance now and her aim was not as the same.
staripop
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kuropeco
Dramatic Marshmallow
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Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 6:35 pm
For a moment, as the last of the youma are crushed underfoot, it almost seems as though it's done.
