[REG] Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard {Iris+Thuban}

[Shazari]

At first, Charlie couldn't figure out why, if someone was apparently setting off fireworks, they weren't clearing the treeline and gaining the sky. It was a few days before New Year's, and Charlie's walk back from Destiny City Memorial Hospital took him past the park again -- where he'd had his own run-in with Sailor Nova, months before. It was odd to think that was so long ago, now, odd to think a lot of things. Odd to think how much he'd cared about his stolen racquetball racket, odd to think that one of the nearly-murdered victims had turned out to be Simon Ferris, who had in turn turned out to be Sailor Atlas. Odd to think that if he'd driven the umbrella through Nova's throat that day, he would not be walking back past this park now, from visiting Miriam in the hospital, where she'd barely gained her life over Sailor Nova's. It was all odd. The past still felt very fresh -- but then, he was Sailor Thuban, senshi of Antiquity, wasn't he. Perhaps the past would always feel fresh. Perhaps the failures would: when Astraea had had to drag him out of the park; when he and Magellan had run for their lives at the expense of someone else's; running away again, from Tanzanite and from the dead woman who volunteered after-hours at an animal shelter. So much running.

In the midst of his important wallowing, it took him some time to realize there were none of the sounds that usually accompanied fireworks. It was only the strange, rainbow bursts of color that wavered against the sky from somewhere in the trees. Fireworks were loud, so unless it was some sort of strobe light that didn't run on electricity, it was something to be concerned about. Certainly something to investigate.

He wasn't sure what kind of youma to expect, but Sailor Thuban grabbed whatever weapon he could -- which was a snowshovel someone had left sitting outside their garage -- and moved into the park. The trees got deeper as he went. Thuban needed a victory today, needed something in the win column. He held the shovel up high to strike as he moved between the thick trees into a clearing, his adrenaline already racing. Issuing the challenge came naturally:

"Your reign of terror is -- "  

[LizzyMoo]

The cover of night was the only saving grace for the newest Super Senshi. It was late enough that she had been able to sneak out of the house with The Spectrum for a quick joyride before some training. As the motor revved and the air rushed past her, causing some of her longer locks to whip back fiercely, she couldn't help but feel a sort of blissful freedom. Perhaps it was the thrill of doing something blatantly illegal, like riding her bike without a license of any sort, but nothing could calm her down like riding her bike as fast as possible. The only problem of such a rush was that it never lasted long enough. She arrived to her destination, which was a park on the other side of town, closer to Destiny City Memorial Hospital. Normally she didn't hang out at such places during the evening, due to cops frequently patrolling around the area for kids out past curfew. However, what she needed to do was important.

Very important.

Parking her vehicle somewhere safe, but close enough to keep an eye on, she then moved herself close to one of the nearby trees. It was dark, but there was still enough light thanks to the streets to casually note that nobody was nearby.

The blonde took in a deep breath, as if she was going to regret what she was doing, then called out "Iris Asteroid Power, Make-up!" Every time she transformed, she could not help but feel a little more gay. And now it was only worse. She glanced to her shoulder guards, which seemed to shimmer faintly in the scant amount of light, and made a simple "Tch!" sound of disapproval. The next thing to receive her attention was her butt bow. The long, draping, annoying adornment attached to her a**. Without any sort of hesitation, she tore off the two long tails of shimmering cloth and tossed them carelessly to the side. Sailor Iris knew that the ribbon would only get in the way, as well as the fact that she wasn't doing any lasting damage to her uniform. The uniform always mended itself.

Always. It was very annoying.

Having sorted out this minor issue, she casually set to exploring what she could do now that she was "Super." Her fist glowed for a brief moment before a fluttering ribbon of colored light popped from her hands. For several minutes, she simply screwed around, twirling about in a less than graceful fashion, moving the ribbon around in the air before it fluttered down delicately to the ground again. She occasionally played around with the notion of guiding the rainbow with a finger and willpower rather than using her full arm for the motion, but it just didn't feel very natural. She was a kinesthetic learner, she always had been. It just felt right using basic motor skills rather than the delicate fine motor skills.

"Alright, now it's time t'get serious!" she grunted out before picking a tree. She could care less about form and grace, and it was evident as she literally flung the rainbow to wrap about the base of the plant. She grinned for a moment before she heard a voice.

"Well sh*t," she scoffed, quirking a brow and glancing in the direction of the sound. Whoever this person was, they better not be after her bike. She shot as intimidating a look as a rainbow clad schoolgirl could in the general direction. Yes, Sailor Iris had very particular priorities and at the moment, it revolved around her precious bike.  

[Shazari]

Thuban choked on " -- ancient history." Literally choked, so that what Sailor Iris heard was, "Your reign of terror is aickkkahhrghh."

He stared at her, with her rainbow-glistening fuku, standing alone in a cluster of trees. She looked at him, with his toga-skirt and a snow shovel held overhead. What a sight they made. "Where's the youma?" Thuban asked, shovel still at the ready. "You're obviously not it."  

[LizzyMoo]

It was a guy.

In a skirt.

There was something wrong with this picture. Sailor Iris, being ever so tactful, had to comment "So are all guy fukus meant t'make dudes look like fags?" Her tone was relatively chipper, despite having insulted the unknown scout and being relatively startled. Straightening up her posture as she tugged that Rainbow Ribbon of hers back to her side, she gave the guy a looking up and down.

"Dude, I seriously feel bad fer ya!" Rather than get closer to the dusty-blonde senshi, she actually began to approach the tree. She knelt down and with a careful eye began to examine the bark. Her mouth twisted slightly as she noted that there was a slight burn mark on the tree's skin from where she had wrapped the rainbow at. Not the desired effect at all.

"Sorry 'bout that. False alarmsies! I'm trainin'... not fightin'..." Were it not for her glowing hand, she would have offered it to the lad for a handshake. Instead, she just went with a simple glance to do the polite part of the greeting. "Go by Sailor Iris. What'cha go by, or do I gotta start callin' ya Mr. Liberty?" It was uncanny how close he looked to that monument. She didn't wait too long before glancing towards her fist and seeming to concentrate a bit. If she was able to make the light brighter, like she did that one time, then didn't that mean she could do the reverse?  

[Shazari]

If Sailor Thuban had been tasked to compose a list of things he found endearing, based on recent experience that list would not have included any of the following items:

- Murder
- Being stabbed in the arm
- Being thrown against parked cars
- Parker Damhnait
- Youma that oozed grey vitreous humor
- Astraea
- People that could not seem to continue living their lives if they did not comment on Sailor Thuban's skirt right at that moment
- Homophobic slurs

He frowned. "Sailor Thuban." He set the shovel to one side, propped against a tree, and took the opportunity to look the other sailor senshi over, since she'd done him the same courtesy and offered the unfavorable results of her assessment. It was only fair. "What happened to your uniform?" he asked with patent disapproval. It was obvious that Sailor Thuban felt some inviolable obligation to respect the skirt and spiky tiara he'd been given by Divine Providence, or else he might've pulled on some track pants before going out to fight crime. Sailor Iris clearly did not share this same understanding of How Things Were Meant to Be.  

[LizzyMoo]

She didn't look at him as he spoke to her. Her own fist was what she seemed interested in at the moment. The light at first remained the same brightness, which was not exactly very pleasing to her, since that was quite the opposite of what she wanted to happen. However, when she practically began glaring at her fist due to how hard she was concentrating, the glow seemed to lessen, as if retreating from her harsh stare. The ribbon itself also seemed to dim as a result.

"That's the sh*t I was talkin' 'bout!" she chuckled to herself as she finally turned and paid attention to the newly introduced Sailor Thuban. She casually tossed the ribbon about the base of the tree trunk again and pulled it tightly.

"Simple, I said 'f*ck you' t'the uniform! Apparently gettin' stronger means ya gotta look frillier." This guy's voice sounded a lot like some stick-in-the-mud teacher she once knew. Though she could tell his mood based off the frown and the tone he was taking with her, she still grinned at him like some sort of trouble-maker. In the hopes of lightening the mood, she offered "Ya wanna 'elp me train a bit?"  

[Shazari]

Sailor Thuban tried very hard to imagine what sort of training one could accomplish, man-versus-tree. The tree was not likely to dodge if you tried to hit it, or chase you around, or hit you back, or leg-sweep you. So though he was baffled, he also felt a certain empathy for the idea that this other senshi -- whatever her crass attitude -- was so at a loss for friends or information that the only training she could do was versus inanimate objects. In the end, Sailor Thuban was stuffy and irascible but rather vulnerably soft-hearted, and this led him to say things not like you have a terrible attitude but instead like, "What did you have in mind?" At least she was training -- that was a definite positive. He doubted some of the other senshi he'd worked with bothered to try and train. (Thuban tended to doubt every senshi's commitment to Sparkle Motion.)  

[LizzyMoo]

Once more, the girl tugged away her ribbon from the tree and approached it to examine again. This time, there was no hint as to where she had latched the ribbon, which caused a toothy grin to emerge. She glanced up to him once she was ready to answer his question.

"Well, Thuban mah boy, I'm still gettin' used t'this a bit. I just want t'check that I can get this attack t'not burn someone, should I need t'save someone's a**." She chuckled in a vaguely nervous fashion and honestly admitted "See, I saved some dude a while back, but it left the guy with a burn around his wrist." Yeah, the guy was one of her bros, and she felt pretty sh*tty after being the cause of his injury. At least he was a soccer player and seemed okay with his new scar. "Before that cat powered me up, I didn't really have control over the intensity of the light."

She pointed over to the tree she had been assaulting, with one small burn mark about its base, though he had witnessed her lassoing the thing twice. "See, a tree can't tell me if something hurts. It just gets burned, or it doesn't." The Super Senshi chuckled a bit before shuffling her feet through the snow and standing right next to Sailor Thuban. She held up her fist where the rainbow was dangling and simply asked "Are ya game?"  

[Shazari]

Sailor Thuban tended to think of himself as a person with a healthy sense of self-preservation. Recent events didn't really bear that out: rushing headlong into battles where he was outnumbered, getting in a car driven by Charys Murphy, those sorts of things. Still, he liked to think he was a person who didn't go seeking out danger -- so when danger came up to him in a park at night and said, can I attack you and see how long it takes you not to get burned with my admittedly scalding magic?, the self-preservation part of his mind replied, in an Al Borland voice, I don't think so, Tim.

But the other part of his mind, the part that so often caused Charlemagne Boyle to say fundamentally stupid things, blurted right out loud, "This is a terrible idea, but if you think it would help."

Thuban rolled down one of his sleeves -- the arm that hadn't recently been stabbed in his fight with Tanzanite -- and then pulled the white and green cloth cuff off his wrist entirely. He held out his arm to the side, trying to keep his expression neutral; this was difficult when he largely felt like she had asked him to help her with archery practice and then set a rosy red apple atop his head and suggested he try not to flinch if he knew what was good for him. "You owe me for this," he snapped impatiently. "You owe me bigtime."  

[LizzyMoo]

A bit lazily, the girl trailed the rainbow along the ground, as if trying to make it look like a snake. In all honesty, she had been expecting a very direct "No" from Thuban. He seemed like the type who wouldn't get caught up in something so "dangerous."

So when he grudgingly agreed to assist her, she glanced over to him, a truly grateful smile upon her lips. Of course, Sailor Iris tried to push such a sincere smile away with a slightly more cocky one. "Yeah, it really would help! I don't exactly want any newspaper headlines sayin' 'Senshi Injures Civilian' when I was savin' them from a Youma. Makes the Senshi look bad an' all."

His mention of a favor didn't go unnoticed, and in fact there was no hint of surprise in the girl's features. Quite bluntly, she addressed the issue: "As long as it ain't somethin' sexual, then I'm fine with doin' a favor fer ya in th'future." Sailor Castor was the main reason why she put such a disclaimer on the favor. That jackass probably would have asked to grab another feel of her a**, or worse. The senshi of rainbows notably shuddered at such a disgusting thought.

When she was ready, she gave him a thumbs up with her free hand, and within 5 seconds of the signal, she swung her arm in his direction. The dulled rainbow obediently flew in Thuban's direction, aiming to wrap itself neatly about his offered arm. As if she was some sort of 9-1-1 operator, she attempted to walk him through the situation. "I'll be honest, it takes a while fer any sort of burn t'occur. Let me know if there's any sort of discomfort from heat an' I'll get rid of th'ribbon." A slight pause. "Oh, an' thanks!"  

[Shazari]

There was a sparkling rainbow ribbon wrapped around his wrist. This was definitely the gayest thing that had ever happened to Charlie, even including the track team Christmas party the year before last, where someone had spiked the egg nog and one of the junior varsity sprinters had kissed him under the mistletoe.

"It's alright so far," he reported, twisting to watch. It was dark, and Sailor Iris's rainbow ribbon was the main light source for either of them. It cast the pair of them into a swimming, irridescent glow, as though they were underwater in some kind of oil spill, colors slick around them.

He'd never really stopped to admire one of their attacks before. It was something to be seen, to be experienced. Well, now Thuban was doing both.

His arm was starting to itch. Not so much a stinging, just a -- hot itch, definitely -- the sort of itch you got when you went to the beach and were suddenly, worryingly reminded by that itch that you'd forgotten to bring sunblock, and now it was too late. "Getting a bit of a sunburn, here," he advised, shifting his wrist a little so he was more comfortable.  

[LizzyMoo]

The Senshi of Rainbow's eyes got a bit wide at his analysis of the situation. "Wait, really?!" A sunburn? How unexpected! She literally opened up the hand which had been clinging to the colorful attack, and instantly the ribbon of light disappeared completely.

"I guess a sunburn is better than gettin' a real burn there... leaves no scars and sh*t..." She jogged up to him, closing the distance between them and rather promptly took up his arm to take a look. Of course, it really didn't do much good, since by the time the rainbow had vanished, her eyes had adjusted to the faint amount of light, so now she couldn't see worth a darn. Yet, she stubbornly continued to look to see if the telltale signs of a sunburn were there, eyes squinting and straining to see any hints of red.

"I bet I could do better" she mused aloud. For a moment, she almost seemed to forget that Thuban was present, despite her attempts to analyze his arm.  

[Shazari]

"You might be crazy, you know," Thuban said -- but there was a bit of a laugh to it, more like he was marvelling at it than condemning. "You seriously might be off your block." (Did anyone still say 'off your block?' Had anyone ever said 'off your block?')

He rubbed at his arm gingerly a few times, blowing on the skin to soothe it temporarily. Sated, he held his arm out again. "That's a neat ability you have -- I'm jealous. Mine's nothing so flashy, just a big cloud of slooooooow, your basic molasses in January. Anyway." He raised his eyebrows. "Let's see you do better. Go again. This time, think about, hmmm." Thuban rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue, then grinned. "Think about your happiest memory."  

[LizzyMoo]

Reality snapped back into place for her the moment Thuban moved his arm back to the position he had it before. A reality where she used rainbow ribbons and wore a retardedly girly outfit with a big ol' bow on her butt.

For some reason, this reality really sucked balls.

Rather bluntly, she confessed "I'd rather be crazy than wearin' this damned uniform all th'time." She was about to jog away again, when he offered a very Peter Pan themed bit of advice. She spun around on her toes to face him, brows creasing slightly as she gave him the "Yer crazy" look.

"It ain't neat if ya don't like flashy sh*t like that. And it ain't powered off unicorn farts and sugar." It almost seemed that the joke went completely missed as she then turned back towards the direction she needed to walk so she could get some distance. When she was in the proper spot, she spun back around with a fist tightened up. "Alright... I'll try it again... I'll let ya know when I'm ready!"

Her gold eyes then just sort of glared at her fist. Obviously, she had done something right the last time. So much like before, she just seemed to stare at her fist pretty intensely. She managed to match the gentle glow, but it wasn't getting any dimmer.

"...god... I think a blood vessel's gonna pop in my head!" she eventually announced, pausing in her efforts to look away.