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 Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 2:01 pm
The October air was crisp, the breeze flicking her hair around as she walked through the park, carefully picking her way down the unfamiliar paths. Her new Crystal Academy uniform felt somewhat stiff on her body, though she supposed it would take a little time before she got used to it and everything softened up.
In front of her, Raja was panting softly, a happy sound only punctuated by her swishing tail causing more of that brisk Autumn air to shoot against her legs. Her grip relaxed on the handle of the harness the dog was attached to, Lilith's white cane slipping over the cobbled path lazily. Sunglasses sat on the bridge of her nose, a needless sign after the more obvious ones of guide dog and walking cane - the teenage girl was, quite obviously, blind. Sunglasses? Her only real way of making things easier for others, actually. The less people saw of her unfocused eyes, the more.... comfortable they seemed to be.
And they called her weird?
Lilith was uneasy as she and her canine companion continued to explore the park, her senses taking in the chatter and buzzing of city life around her despite the grass and trees. It was so noisy in the city... the air smelled weird, the people were all push and shove and "GET OUT OF MY WAY, DAMN YOU" - ugh. Yay for a nice school... but did it have to be centered in a city like this?
Raja took the lead on where they were going, winding down various trails and sweeping paths as she followed her nose to gods know where. Lilith at least kept track of how many turns they made, keeping a note to herself of how many reverse would be needed to get back to the entrance and then back to the school grounds. As nice as getting lost in the woods was... she hardly wanted to risk a search party.
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Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:51 am
The woody scrub of the park was quiet and filled with birdsong, only slightly whiffing of the usual Destiny City petrol. Their petrol wasn't as much of a problem as it might have been, and they had won "Best Garden City" two years in a row, but it was still nice to get away from the main roads. Her service dog had kept her on the blazoned path, which was carefully marked with a laid series of planks that Lilith could feel underneath her tread. The wind rustled through the leaves.
Raja was trained to ignore animals, but the cat sitting on the path ahead would have made anyone stop -- especially when she opened her mouth and said "Stop!". It was a bizarre place for the voice to be originating, so low on the ground; someone was lying down? "Stop -- wait, are you blind?"
Somebody was lying on the ground and was pretty dumb.
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Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:32 am
When someone gives a sudden command, it takes a bit to ignore it and just keep going. When that sudden command originates from not only directly in front of you, but somewhere around ground level? Well, you just kind of have to stop right on a dime. Lilith's hands tightened on the harness and cane, taking a careful half step backwards as she angled her head to the side in just a certain way~ a kind of obvious "my head is turned towards you to hear you better... and by you I mean your movements in case I need to smack you with my cane" way, actually.
Her brow raised curiously above her sunglasses, a rather unladylike snort popping from her nose at the rather rude question coming from the... girl? Voice was female, that much she was certain of. Was the girl sitting? Lying down? Had Raja almost stepped on her? No... that wouldn't have happened. The golden retriever was far smarter and reliable than to ever do that, surely. When the dog in question gave an uneasy, soft and short bark at whoever it was in front of them, she felt the need to at least acknowledge the whoever it was.
"Yes? I mean... isn't it kind of obvious?" she responded steadily, shifting her weight on her feet. "Not many people tend to need to ask when they see me with all this." She tapped the edge of her cane against the harness and glasses before giving the white stick itself a quick flick in the air and setting it back to the ground. "Now... would you mind telling me why you had us stop?" The stranger gets a question, so does she. It's only fair. It wasn't like she could hear the sounds of construction in front of them, or any big obstacle that would require a huge detour... and if this girl was lying about, Raja would have just lead the blind girl around her. So what the eff?
Oh if only she had any idea she was speaking to a cat...
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Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:50 am
"You're blind," said the person, as though a little bemused by it. "You're blind. This can't be right -- this absolutely cannot be right."
Astraea was used to a lot of things. She was used to waking up people with the IQ of oatmeal and the common sense that God did not give a flashlight. She was used to waking up people who were lazy, indolent, apathetic, and generally grievously assholes. But she was not used to waking up somebody who would never be able to fight at all.
"Er," she said.
Errrrr.
"Look, I don't want to -- look, how blind are you?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 3:24 pm
Lilith scowled, quickly finding this oddball's statements rather... well, just plain rude! "What do you mean 'cannot be right'?" she asked with a click of her tongue, straightening as she tapped her cane into the path once or twice out of faintly growing impatience. The nerve of this chick! What was so wrong about her being blind? Why did it even matter?
This whole situation was confusing, frustrating...
Never mind weird.
She made a face. "I see nothing but black, and haven't seen anything else since I was four." Not that she could remember much else beyond the accident, though faded memories of how the world once looked to her still lingered if she concentrated. "Now would you please tell me what all this nonsense is about?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:43 pm
There was another beat. A confused silence. Whoever was sitting there was still sitting there on the ground. "I can't do this," said the voice, a little dazed. "I absolutely can't do this. This isn't -- you couldn't even fight." Lilith heard very soft pacing -- very soft. Whoever was walking (down that low?) barely made a sound on the crackling twigs. No voice for a moment. Then, finally:
"Look. Answer me this."
The voice was agitated, and extraordinarily disbelieving. "Are you the practitioner of some kind of kung-fu martial art which lets you fight despite being blinded?"
This was probably one of the weirder questions Lilith had ever been asked to answer ("Can you tell colours by touch?!").
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Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:57 pm
"...why the hell would I want to fight?" Her shoulders dropped, head cocked to the side, expression one of supreme and complete disbelief. It couldn't be a good sign for how quickly all that annoyance just flew out of her... but this was just too freaking weird. There had to be a line before she could just mark it all up to a mental condition anyways, right? So why not add some bi-polar into the mix? "Are you on crack?" Better yet, was she? A part of her was really beginning to believe she'd lost it. Maybe this polluted city air was messing with her brain? She listened to the faint sounds of the person walking... but... so low... the hell? Did one of the girls slip something into her drink or lunch before she went out on the walk?
Alright, so Lilith would happily admit she's gotten some weird ones in her time, but this girl was just takin' the cake here! Where did she get this from? A comic book? "How's this though -" she began simply, feeling herself start to give into this insanity. "Keep asking all these ridiculous things and we'll see just how well I can find you and smack you upside the head with my cane, mmkay? Who knows, maybe you're the key to unlocking those magical kung-fu skills you just mentioned." Lilith couldn't help herself - she actually burst out laughing at that one, shaking her head at her own stupidity for seriously saying that aloud. "Or maybe you can just tell me what's going on - or why I'm high, if that's what's going on here - and we can just move along with our lives?" And was she the only one noting the irony of this chick continuously saying 'look'?
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Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:52 pm
The voice was suddenly coming from a much greater height. Unbeknownst to Lilith, Astraea had just shifted to her human form -- she was not going to get anything done as a cat. The teal-and-black henshin pen was already fresh in her hand, warm from the magic, as she walked towards the girl -- skirting around the service dog (even as a human, she didn't like the creatures. Dogs. Useless).
She reached over and took Lilith's hand, though Lilith could already feel her space being invaded, and folded her fingers around the henshin pen.
"So," said the girl. "Against all my better judgement, possibly the law, and the sinking feeling in my gut that I really never trust enough and if I did I would not be in this much trouble -- I want you to take that pen and say 'Metis Power, Make-Up'." That sounded baffling. "Enunciate. Say 'Metis' correctly. Prove you are not a complete dimbulb like a lot of other people I have met. Then let's see -- and I am emphasising that on purpose -- what happens."
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 12:34 am
Raja gave another small, curious bark, though didn't give any indication of moving from her spot as the girl felt the stranger draw closer to her. Lilith's hand was quickly lifted from the dog's harness handle, and before she could even protest to not only the invasion of personal space but also the very much unwanted touch.... she found herself holding something small, warm, and cylindrical. What the eff?
When the other girl began to talk, the brunette hoped for a moment she'd finally get her explanation... only to get instructions. And that so did nothing to lift the haze of "this is so not real" that had long since settled over her. Nothing about what she said made sense really, but Lilith shook her head, gave a shrug of her shoulders, and waved the figurative white flag. Why not?
"Should be interesting at least," she muttered to herself, still dissecting the tones, word choices, word order, and other potentially telling bits in the other's order. Things that probably were a blindingly bright clue were lost on the blind girl however, though again with the mark against her disability. What the hell...
"Metis Power, Make-Up!" Her voice was light and clear, perhaps even edged with something akin to hopeful that maybe something interesting really would happen.
...well... at least she got her wish? I do believe the happenings of saying those few words would class for unusual, interesting, freaky... and potentially very cool.
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 3:27 am
 And suddenly she could see. Not properly -- not in the way she'd been told other people saw, but the darkness that was her world normally was lifted. Everything living was suddenly flung into a rainbow of colour. The trees around her were shimmering waves of green; the girl in front of her the same yellow as Raja, curiously enough. It was staggering. It was overwhelming to take in. It was potentially very cool -- scary, frightening in a way. If she'd been wanting something interesting to happen, she had gotten her wish, and Astraea just stood back hoping vaguely that martial arts for the blind would suddenly kick in as well. "Third Eye?" said Astraea, hope tinging her voice. "Third Eye. Magical sight. No need of a walker. Or a stick. Am I correct, or am I about to be extraordinarily devastatedly embarrassed and guilty."
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 2:18 pm
Lilith gave a startled gasp, stumbling back a step and a half, eyes wide as she took in this... this... sight! On reflex she forced her lids down over the empty irises, hoping to bring back the familiar darkness. No small break from this colorful world was to be hers... which lead to an interesting connection, when the girl spoke. Magical... sight?
Still technically blind, she turned to blink on habit at the... wait... what now? Her open mouth to respond snapped shut, instead taking in the yellow waves of energy that formed and spiraled around the female's figure, her brow wrinkling as something... didn't seem right. Raja gave a small bark again, pressing her cold nose into Lilith's palm before giving it a quick lick - a canine's best way of saying "Hey! Cheer up! Be happy~! Everything's okay!" even if the brunette was quite positive there was no way the dog could understand what was going on.
"I-I can... see," she confirmed to the other, voice a little shaky as she continued to take in everything around her in awe. "But... how? And-" She paused abruptly, suddenly realizing she had gloves on. Turning her attention to herself, she noted instead copper colored waves, small tendrils of white streaked through it. More interesting than that right now though, was the... well... rather fascinating outfit change. She ran her hands over the costume, marveling at the lace and layers and... still trusting her fingers over her "eyes," she played with her broach. Was it... an eye? Earrings and choker had the same thing on them.
"What exactly was it you were to be guilty about if I couldn't..?" she asked slowly, returning her magical gaze upon the girl. What the hell just happened here?! As freaking amazing as it all was... as frightening, as wonderful, as impossible... she stood still, hands tangled loosely in her new skirt. "Why did you say Third Eye?" The girl had to know what was going on - she'd given her that little object and told her to say those words, after all!
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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 10:37 am
"You're Sailor Metis, sailor senshi of the Third Sight," said the girl -- the girl who registered as an animal? The same as Raja? What was up with that? "And if you were fully blind I was not about to send you out to battle. That would have been absolutely ridiculous. You would have been a dead sitting duck up against the people who already want to kill you, and believe me, I don't think any of them would have gone: 'oh, she's blind, let's give her a chance.'"
More like: she's blind! Easy pickings!
"You're a sailor senshi, defender of good, etcetera, etcetera."
Astraea had given this speech a few too many times.
"People have been dying all over the city. Let's just cut to the chase and make it plain: you're a superhero."
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Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:55 pm
Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Her mind was spinning, all this talk of Sailor Senshi... her? A... super hero? Well, she certainly had the magical girl thing down, what with the outfit change and magical sight. Which was apparently a rather big requirement. Her nature made it difficult to not stiffen at the fact of yet another situation in her life where her condition was brought into question, like she was so totally useless because of it... Logically speaking though, even she wasn't stubborn enough to know that, yeah, she kind of was. At least for fights or whatever else this girl expected of her now.
But wait... someone wants to kill her? Deaths around the city as it is? She could vaguely recall the recent stories of terrorists and pranksters on the news. Was that what this was about? The story behind the stories? "Why are the people dying?" She put her hands on her hips, smile cocky despite her unease. "If I'm supposed to be some kind of super hero, where's the villain?"
Looking at this girl again, with Raja sitting so near to her... the copper of Lil- no, Metis' (isn't that what she was just called?) aura was the only copper of the three, and two yellows... "If I may, as rather random as this is considering the topic, but um... who... and... er... what are you?" Hands still held in place, her confident expression faded into one of more confusion, head tilting slightly. Was that a rude way of putting it? She tried to think of a way to explain the auras without sounding like an idiot. "It's just... well, I can 'see' this sort of copper color around my body. The trees are giving off green, Raja yellow... and yours is yellow as well." Her brow crinkled, inside her head connecting the logical dots. There were two potential possibilities for this - living beings had yellow auras while she had copper (maybe the Senshi-ness warped it like radiation did DNA or something...), or she as a human had copper and animals had yellow. But that made no sense.
Animals don't walk around on two human legs.
...and girls don't magically gain a weird second sight, either. Er....
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 7:10 am
Even as she watched, the human shape in yellow squelched back down into a -- cat shape? It wasn't really a human. It was an animal. The yellow sparkled a little, as though glitter had been poured over it, but it was definitely an animal. An animal with a human voice. "All right," it was saying. "Your villain. Your villain is the Negaverse, and if you've been paying attention, you'll know humans have been dying all over the city from comatose states -- this is the Negaverse, stealing their starseeds. To skip an explanation, your crystallized soul."
Well, that was serviceable.
"Are you telling me you can't actually see real things?"
She sounded a little despairing.
"I'm a cat."
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:38 am
The abrupt size and shape change made her jump, eyes wide and mouth rather agape as... oddly, this transformation almost made sense. Color wise only, it made sense. On all other levels of logic, Metis was still wondering if one of the girls at Crystal slipped something into her food or drink. "Well I can clearly see that you're a cat now, ma'am," she quickly stated, lowering herself to a kneeling position to get a better look at the feline. "It's not that I can't see 'real things,' just... can't see their real color, or every tiny detail. And it seems that if something's not alive, it doesn't produce waves of it's own." Empty gaze flicked around on habit, taking in everything. "The grass is green, just like it always was. Trees are green... leaves and trunks. The benches, the rocks... they're all empty space, outlined and vaguely detailed by the waves from living, natural things around them."
She looked back to the cat with a smile. It was so weird to be able to see again but... good god, to not be excited would be ludicrous right about now. "I can see a... a star on your forehead. It's not super clear, but I can make out general shapes and body parts through someone's... well, aura, I guess." The grin grew, though now she was slipping out of pure explanation, and more into trying to cheer up the helpful kitty.
The conversation backtracked a moment to the nice quick douse of information she'd been given about her new found enemy - er... enemies. "Negaverse is taking the people's starseeds -" Souls. Wow. "and I take it I've got to stop them from doing so." How? She did not see any useful weapon in her hands. Holding her tongue for the time being, priority for her was less information, more trying to convince the cat she wasn't a useless blind buffoon.
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