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 Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:44 pm
Finishing patrol was definitely off the agenda. If she took to the rooftops again, Castor would undoubtedly find her and harass her some more, and that was the last thing that Europa wanted. She was tired, and she was upset, and she was covered in garbage. If she ran into a Youma right now, it would probably be able to off her in one swipe.
Tomorrow, she would begin attempting to permanently forget this birthday had ever happened. Maybe she'd just pretend to be sixteen for another year and then go straight to eighteen. Yeah. That sounded like a good idea. (Or a totally implausible one.)
It was pretty clear she couldn't go home until she could find somewhere quiet to henshin down, and then she wasn't sure if the smell would remain. The playground, her usual fail-safe spot, was too far away, and so this left her wandering around Destiny City at a late hour of the night, in an increasingly uncomfortable senshi uniform, becoming more and more convinced every minute that this was, by far, the worst birthday in the history of birthdays. Ever.
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:19 am
Well, he'd finally done it. Knocked out the power on the whole block from plugging too many shiny, pretty things in. Christmas lights were especially dangerous for Pasha - they glowed in pretty colors, could go all flashy, and could correlate with music. There was probably nothing better (aside from tinsel).
Following a suggestion from a nice girl on Twitter, he'd decided to go buy brighter lights, so one strand would work just as well as two. He'd found all sorts of lovely LED stars, rainbow bulbs, and little golden ones that flashed just like his fireflies. Of course, there were probably so many of these that they'd also short out the electricity, but it was worth a try.
Humming contentedly, he walked towards home with his purchases, deciding to cut through the playground to save some time. The sooner he got all of these put up, the sooner he could bask in their sheer glory.
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:55 pm
Of course, standing in the middle of the street crying wasn't really a viable option, either, so she forged ahead towards the playground. There wasn't really much else she could do, was there? It was, after all, on her way home.
Europa was moping her way down the sidewalk when she spotted another person approaching from the opposite direction. Oh, s**t! She couldn't let a civilian see her like this! She looked around for a place to hide, and the closest option was a hydrangea bush in the nearest front lawn. The senshi bolted, adding a generous helping of dirt and yard clippings to whatever was already smeared on her uniform.
She watched the person draw closer and hoped they hadn't noticed her. Oh. Wait.
Europa breathed a sigh of relief. It was Pavel. Better known as Pyxis. Better known as the ally she ought to have taken out on patrol with her if she had been thinking with her head.
"Pavel," she hissed. "Pavel! Over here!"
It was not every day that the neighbors' hydrangeas started talking.
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:34 pm
Still stuck on how he was going to set up these fantastic new Christmas lights, Pasha almost completely missed the plant speaking to him. Frowning, he took a few steps backward, looking at his neighbor's hydrangea with curiosity.
"Um...um, hey there...ladyplant." His brows were knitted in confusion, and he shifted his shopping bags awkwardly in his arms. He wasn't really sure what to say to a plant. This never really went into consideration. "I guess you already know my name so I don't hafta tell you. And I know you're probably talking to me so you can get me to decorate you with some of these lights, but you're not really my plant and all, and I might kinda get in trou-"
Wait, there was definitely something behind the bush. And the voice had sounded familiar. Gently, he brushed some of the stems aside, laughing when he saw Europa.
"Oh, hey! I'm really sorry, I thought you were the flowers!" He lowered his voice, just in case someone happened to be listening. "Didja have a good birthday? Sorry I couldn't come to the party, I got grounded for killing the electricity..."
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:29 am
"It was okay until I went out on patrol," answered Europa, who stayed solidly in the bush. "Then I ran into- do you know Sailor Castor?" It was a shot in the dark, but if it did it would simplify explanation. "I ran into him. And he was a jerk and then I fell off a roof. Into garbage."
Admittedly, the hydrangeas smelt quite a bit worse than they ought have. "Hold on," sighed Europa, and ducked back into the bushes. They glowed a bit. Tallulah climbed out, dressed in sweats and looking a bit worse for the wear.
"I'll survive," she said glumly, and tried to smile for her friend. She was glad that if anyone had to see her like this, it was Pavel and not, say... Jaimie. Or Janice. She wasn't sure which would have been worse at this point. "How'd you knock out the electricity?" she asked. When in doubt, changing the subject was always promising.
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 8:09 pm
Pasha did not, in fact, know who Sailor Castor was. Really, he didn't know how many other Scouts existed, past hearsay and what Abel told him. But this Sailor Castor sounded like a pretty nasty Sailor, if he was being a jerk. He would remember to make angry faces at him in the future.
For now, he settled with frowning and shaking his head in response, waiting patiently as she disappeared behind the bushes again. Her inquiry about the electricity was met with a big (and entirely unrelated) hug, his shopping bags thumping uncomfortably against the both of them.
"Well, we'll just make you okay again, and then you can forget all about the jerk stuff!" he insisted, pulling away and shuffling the weight of the bags. "So um...what happened was...I put up a lot of lights because we had bunches and bunches of pretty ones...and I guess it just couldn't take it anymore. And that's when mom told me you're not really supposed to connect like, maybe twenty-five, strands of lights to the same outlet." There was a careful pause before he continued. "And that was just in the bathroom."
He knew Tallulah well enough that he was confident she wouldn't judge him for this, but he still nervously shifted his weight from foot to foot, attempting to play it off as shopping-bag-balancing. "Oh! Oh, I have a present for you!" Good save. Presents were always a good save.
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 8:58 pm
The extent of Christmas decorations in the Cowden household consisted of an inflatable snowman on the lawn and an obviously fake tree in the living room. (It was, after all, the color of tinsel. They didn't make fir trees that color last she'd checked.) Despite the environmental implications of running so many electric lights, Pavel had an infectious sort of enthusiasm that gave Tallulah hope that the holiday season could be something other than routine commercialism and packaged cheer. "Yeah, I'm not sure you're supposed to plug that many in..." she said, smirking as she tried, and roughly failed, to imagine a bathroom decked out in christmas lights.
"Really?" she asked, brightening. She was the sort of person who made a concentrated effort to not expect birthday presents, so that when someone remembered it seemed even better. "You have it with you?" she asked, trying to clarify, and tried not to think that this either implied that he had just bought it, or had been expecting to see her.
"I left my bedroom window open," she explained quietly, "So I'm not really in any hurry to get back. I'll be able to get in."
One of the benefits of having spent sixteen years as a model child was that your parents never expected you to get up to no good in the seventeenth. Tallulah was quickly discovering and relishing in the freedom her parents afforded her simply because they didn't expect her to sneak out.
She managed a smile. With tonight's trauma behind her, she was starting to feel much better.
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