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 Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:20 pm
 In Blood
Megiddo helps Penthe hide a body.
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:21 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:21 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:22 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:24 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:25 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:26 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:27 pm
The Habit-Forming Pain
Penthe goes toe to toe with an absolutely massive Captian when he attempts to save some poor Lieutenant's life.
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:28 pm
Young Volcanoes
Penthe and Vulcan attack a General. It does not go well at all, and Vulcan is seriously injured.
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:29 pm
Second Life
Penthe takes Vulcan to her planet, and works desperately to save her life.
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:30 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:32 pm
Our Names Won't Be Remembered When Penthesilea returned from her planet, she felt crushed. Defeated. Lost. She had been doing so well - two out of three rituals completed, a life saved, and a sash that could help her save more acquired. But now she had run into a wall - just as much of one as the magic that had barred her from her hospital and library the first time she went up.
And this time, instead of it making her angry and making her want to forge ahead, it drained her. She had been so excited, so sure that she was going to finish whatever it was she had started, and then...this.
It was a slap in the face. Or a kick to the shins. More like the latter, really, because it hurt, and it had taken her legs out from under her, in a way. A slap was an insult, and this was anything but an insult.
This was her planet shoving in her face what she already knew.
She was not ready to be Sailor Penthesilea. Sure, Laoise had Awakened her, and then she’d made it to Super - but that was necessity. It had been Awaken or die, upgrade or die. There was, as far as she understood, only one option for a Senshi in each generation, and if she died, there would be no one to protect her planet in this mess of a war - no one to start repairing it and bringing it back to its former glory. Hell, maybe it would die and crumble completely without a Senshi.
It was survival, for her and for it, that had brought her this far. It would likely be survival again that brought her to Eternal, if it ever came. An enemy like Avalon, except this time she would face them with only a cat for backup, and suddenly Eternal would be necessary or she would die.
And she would still not be worthy. She was a poor choice, but she was the only choice, and that was all that had carried her so far.
She powered down, and trudged home as herself. It was a long walk, but she felt wrong continuing to be Penthesilea when she had settled so firmly on the idea that it was not who she was really meant to be. It hurt, to think that something she had felt destined for - something that had seemed to give her life purpose - was instead only a fluke. She was born with a certain starseed, and necessity dictated that she take up the mantle of the Senshi of War.
But she was a child playing with swords, and now she knew that better than ever. Vulcan had nearly died because of her, because of her cockiness, and her planet was punishing her for that.
She was not worthy.
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:33 pm
Written Off as Less Than Worthless When Jeanne finally got home that night, she curled up on her bed and did not move.
It worried her mother, who was unused to such displays from her, because it continued into the next day, and the next.
She shut herself up and did not explain why, and she certainly did not power up or even think of becoming Penthesilea. Instead, she shoved her henshin pen into the bottom of a drawer and tried to forget it even existed.
She was being foolish, sure, and she certainly wasn't going to prove that she was worthy by moping and whining and crying, but she also was not feeling much like trying to be a badass warrior queen when all she could think about was that she
did
not
measure
up.
And that she never would.
Sure, she had Evadne’s starseed - but she obviously did not have her heart.
Evadne would have had a better plan. She had seen only a little of her past self, but she had felt her, and she knew that she had been a great general, a leader of armies. She was an ideal to live up to.
Evadne would not have let Vulcan get hurt, because Evadne would not have gone into that fight as hastily as Jeanne had - it had been foolish to attack without scouting and planning. She had known nothing of their enemy except that he was a General, and she had assumed that two supers could take him no problem, even split.
She had assumed she would be fast enough to get there before he could do too much damage to Vulcan.
She had forgotten that by splitting them up, she had made it a one on one fight, and she had not considered what that could mean.
She would have to do better, if she wanted to be anything like Evadne.
Evadne had been trained from the age of eight to be a leader of armies and a shaker of worlds and a conqueror and a destroyer and a warmaker.
Jeanne was a teenaged girl playing at soldier, in armor that did not and should not belong to her.
And so she let herself drown in her thoughts, and did not answer messages on even her normal civilian cell phone because there was no one she wanted to talk to. She had considered reaching out to Keren, but her heart twisted at the idea of admitting her weaknesses and failires to her girlfriend. Keren looked at her and saw a badass warrior of Order, and selfishly, Jeanne wanted to keep it that way.
Even if it was not, and might never be, true. She could kill without remorse and handle herself well in a solo fight, but what did all that mean, in the end?
It meant she was cocky and foolish, and someday, sash or not, she would get someone killed.
She was not worthy.
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:33 pm
I Refuse to Be Forgotten On the third day after she returned from her failed planet trip, Jeanne had her krav maga class. It was the first thing she dragged herself out of her room for, because even feeling as despondent as she was, she would not miss it for the world. All she had to do there was hit things. No worries about being a planetary warrior, no concern over whether her power should be hers, no tightness in her chest as she thought about everything she needed to be and how very, very far she fell short.
No, instead she got to beat the s**t out of dummies and her classmates. She fell into the rhythms of sparring and practice easily, and she took solace in that.
After class, her teacher asked her if she'd mind staying and doing a demonstration battle for the next one - beginners, coming after school.
She agreed.
It was a spar against another student - a man far taller than her, who looked amused tob e fighting such a small girl.
"Sensei, are you sure about this?" He asked. Sensei simply smiled, and nodded to Jeanne.
The situation felt intimately familiar, a bigger man who laughed at a small female opponent, and Jeanne realized without really thinking it through that he was in the same position - everything about it was so like Evadne's Trial of First blood, the memory resurfaced with perfect clarity. She darted in, just as Evadne had, and smacked her palm into his chest and brought her leg around to take him off his feet.
It was swift and simple, and he was down.
The audience, which had been bored elementary school kids chatting amongst each other before, was now dead silent, staring at the tiny redhead with her boot heel on the chest of a much larger man.
"Never underestimate a girl," Jeanne said, grinning victoriously.
A cheer erupted from around her, and for the first time in days, she felt bouyed. Confident.
She was powerful, and strong, and capable. She could do what Evadne had done, at least in the physical arena. As for the mental - the strategic and clever sides of war - well. She would have to better learn to apply the skills she already had, from war games that were not perfect analogues but could still be training.
And she had good friends, for those moments when she could not carry herself.
Vulcan did not blame her for what had happened, and while she did blame herself, she could do it in a healthier way. There would be no more of this wallowing bullshit, no more hiding away and sulking and being sad and not doing a damn thing to fix it. It was stupid and uncharacteristic anyway - she was no delicate waif to be shattered at the slightest difficulty.
Her planet had judged her unworthy to take the final Trial and fully become its Senshi.
She would prove it wrong.
She would make herself worthy.
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:34 pm
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