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 Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:14 pm
Despite the risk of being caught, Tallulah made most of the trip to Hillworth suited up as Sailor Europa. She'd started out walking in her civilian form, but it was already kind of late out and she didn't want to get stopped by anyone, and walking was so slow when you were accustomed to leaping from rooftop to rooftop and doing super-powered parkour up the sides of buildings. So she stayed henshined up until about a block from the school, and then powered down in the alley.
She'd always thought that her first nighttime expedition to the notorious institute would be under different circumstances, a rendezvous with Jaimie, or maybe getting revenge on Elzo - not desperately seeking Alex Rivera to hand off her memory card and ask him to cover her a**. But, then again, Tate knew. And that was really, really bad.
Alex Rivera being her partner in crime and YouTube independent journalism, though, she figured she could trust him. And so, restored to her civilian form and her sweats, she headed up the hill towards Hillworth, found what she supposed was the tree Alex had mentioned, and waited.
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:51 pm
Hillworth Grammar School for Troubled Boys (or whatever the tagline of the week was -- Alex didn't pay too much attention to the graffiti that tagged and re-tagged the last line on the school's sign) was in and of itself a bleak and quite depressing place. In comparison to Meadowview, it looked as if the establishment was first a prison that was later converted into a school while still retaining its prison-like qualities. Take the wall around the school, for example -- whereas Meadowview's walls were painted in many exciting colors, Hillworth's was drab in comparison thanks to the efforts of boys in detention spending their time scrubbing away at the colorful slogans such as -- well, such as things that shouldn't be repeated, really.
For Alexander, the wall was an annoying obstacle. Thankfully there was a way around it: a well-placed tree at the side of the wall was easy to climb up (easy once you got the hang of it; difficult when limbs were trimmed. Thankfully the trees were neglected during the winter, but the addition of snow to tree limbs didn't make climbing any easier), followed by a clamber onto the wall (also covered in snow), then a careful walk or scoot (Alex was fond of scooting) down the wall to the next tree, where Tallulah waited.
Snow fell quickly beneath the tree as Alex carefully climbed down, slipping and falling onto a pile of snow at the last limb. "Oof! Critting crit on a pixel, this stuff is cold!" He announced, picking himself up before patting the snow off of his trousers. "Ugh! This is worse than Battle To- oh! Hey Tallulah, what brings you out here? I got your message."
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:14 pm
For the record, this week the sign said "Hillworth School for Mixed Fruits and Nuts." Tallulah had seen it on the way in but hadn't given it a whole lot of thought - she had more distressing things at hand, and was clearly on edge judging from the way she jumped about a foot in the air when Alex jumped out of the tree, landing practically on top of her. (Well, not really, since that would have been painful...)
Online, she'd just said she needed to meet and it was urgent, and she'd give him more information in person. Well, this was as in-person as it got, there was no hiding that she'd screwed up.
"Someone caught me uploading the videos. At school," she said lamely. "And I don't think she's going to tell the cops or else I'd be in jail already, but she'll tell other students, and I need someone to pretend to be me for a while."
"Online, I mean," she clarified. "I have one video I haven't posted yet, and I can give you my youtube login info - please, I know they'll check the IPs and I need there to be some that couldn't possibly be me."
All this made her come off far more savvy than she actually was. In reality, she'd just watched a few episodes of NCIS trying to familiarize herself with what might happen if the authorities got ahold of this.
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:40 pm
Alex winced at the first words. "Ouch," he said sympathetically, waiting until she finished. "That really bites -- do you have a computer at home? Library? Someone else's computer? Could always start uploading them in lesser quality to make it look like you stole the video from someone else and are just uploading it for popularity." He shoved his hands into his pockets, shivering. "Though really I think it depends on who it was -- friend? Foe? Did you tell her you were uploading it for a friend? Or what exactly happened?
"Otherwise," he continued, "If I upload from here and the IP addresses are checked, then it's going to look like someone from Meadowview who suddenly went to Hillworth, and trust me when I say that the computers here are quite horrid. Why not go to the library or somesuch?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:50 pm
"She came in while I was editing. I told her I found it on the share drive and was just messing with it," groaned Tallulah, pacing a rut in the snow, "but she didn't believe me." And she had uploaded a few from home, but it was the issue of the IP address again. "Look, you said you wanted to take the videos too, right?" she asked. What she really needed was for someone else to start taking videos, because it was getting to be too much to take videos and do senshi activities and not just have a bunch of clips of Sailor Europa vrs. the Youma of the week.
"Look," she said, holding out the SD card she had clasped in her palm. "The video on here is already cleaned up and everything. It's Sailor Europa and some kind of fire hydrant creature. You can post it to my account or..."
She trailed off, thinking. "Or you can post it to yours and there can be two people making the videos. You can have the credit for this one and- and I can tell you some of the routes I found. They patrol and stuff."
She had not found as many as she would have liked, unfortunately.
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 7:03 pm
Alex slowly nodded, eying the SD card she offered. Sailor Europa? Wait, weren't they senshi? Was that a demon? Or were the senshi and sailors related or was that the name of a senshi...? Well, come to think of it, there was one way he could find out.
With a grin, he accepted the SD card with a nod, taking it and storing it in his pocket. "Look at it this way, if I uploaded it to mine then it'd really force the fact that you found it and were messing with it, right? If that person knew your account and saw that video, then they'd probably get even more suspicious but," he paused, considering. "If I start uploading some of your stuff, that'd take the heat off of you, right? I'm game, but what's this about routes and patrols? Why patrol set routes, when the police can catch on and, well, catch them?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 7:18 pm
"I don't know," shrugged Tallulah, "Do I look like a senshi? I just know some of them show up in the same place over and over, like turf or something."
At least Alex had taken the card and seemed to be on board with the idea. "That's the idea," she nodded. "Have someone else do it, so even if someone figures out one of us, the other can keep posting. The world needs to know about this! Terrorists wouldn't rescue kittens!"
This seemed to be her tag line.
"Look," she said, "I just know that Sailor Europa and Sailor Pyxis - that's the boy in the skirt, from the playground equipment video - they like to hang around my neighborhood. And Sailor Atlas comes by the animal shelter sometimes with kittens."
She figured it was probably better to not mention Sailor Castor. He hadn't appeared in the videos, after all.
"And there are a couple at Meadowview, but I haven't been back since the first video - but, you know, weird lights."
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 7:49 pm
"Haha, you've got a point there," Alex replied, "Doesn't help that the senshi seem to enjoy running around in short shorts and skirts, y'know? I don't envy them one bit considering the local weather."
Alex raised an eyebrow at her tag line. Terrorists woul- oh! Oooh, right! There was that one strange boy she had a clip of on her account who rescued some kittens. That was... one of the oddest clips he ever saw, and actually assumed it was a hoax. Who in their right mind would dress like that? At least Marvel and DC superheros had more sense to use spandex!
"I see. Sorta," he admitted, "It's kind've strange to hear them have names, y'know? It's like they're not exactly terrorists, but not exactly super heroes either. They're just..." He lifted his shoulders in a shrug, then grinned, "They're really hard to catch on camera around here, that's for sure. Do they come out at nig- wait, that's a stupid question. Coming out during the day would draw too much attention, right?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 7:56 pm
"Mostly at night," nodded Tallulah. It was a good thing Alex was a fast learner or else she would have risked exposing herself to try to make herself clearer. "The outfits are odd, yeah," she agreed, although Europa was learning to like her booty shorts.
"I think they are superheroes, in a way," she said, tapping a finger to her lips thoughtfully. "Not in the same way Batman or Wonder Woman is a superhero, though. All the names are celestial bodies, too," she added.
She hadn't quite puzzled this part out yet, but it seemed to have something to do with where their power came from. Of course, she couldn't tell Alex that. "Anyway," she continued, tugging on the sleeves of her sweatshirt - the cold was really starting to get her, and the snow was seeping through her running shoes. "If you go looking I'm sure you'll find some. I can't be the only one getting lucky and finding them."
Her teeth chattered audibly. Tallulah rubbed her eyes. "I ought to get going," she said. "Thanks for meeting me."
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 8:04 pm
Alex stared when Tallulah mentioned their names. "They're... named after celestial bodies like stuff in space, right?" He clarified, pulling out his hands to wave them around. "And they come out and fight evil at night, so... They're kinda like... werewolves. From space." He paused, then shook his head, "Nah, they're too magical and not beastial enough for those. They're really strange, though..."
He trailed off, mulling it over in his head. This was certaintly interesting! Nevermind the occasional headline in which one or two was out in the open, during the daylight. That paper was pretty hard to track down, but he could swear he saw a glimpse of it before. Maybe? In any event...
"Hey, no problem. I'll keep my eyes open and see if I can track down anything. Do you need help getting home? This neighborhood's kinda rough..."
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 8:24 pm
"I walked all the way up here, didn't I?" asked Tallulah. Sure it was rough, but at 11 PM on a school night in the snow, the place was dead. She glanced down the hill to make a point - sure enough, it was a still as it would be if the whole world had frozen solid. "I'll be fine," she assured him, and then reached out and wrapped him in a quick hug. "Thank you so much for your help! You are a lifesaver. Seriously. Good night!"
She turned and hurried away, her mind racing. This certainly made things a bit less hectic, but-
Alex deserved something for his hard work. A bit of an incentive. As soon as she was out of site around the side of a building, Tallulah glanced around, made sure no one was watching, and sank into a crouch. "Europa power, make up!" she whispered, pulling her pen from the pocket of her sweatpants.
---
Sailor Europa didn't need a tree to get up onto the wall, nor did she have to step carefully to not fall off. Alex couldn't have gotten that far... The pretty-shorted warrior of the deep scanned the frozen school grounds beneath her and spotted a dim figure trudging back towards the dorms. A quick roof jump or two and she was nearly on top of him.
Sailor Europa balanced on the slight pitch of the dorm roof and struck a pose in the moonlight.
"Good luck, brave knight!" she called, paused long enough to make sure he saw her, waved, and then bounded off into the night. She still had to get all the way home.
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 8:38 pm
Alex made to make a retort, closing his mouth with a soft click. She had him there! In fact, he was further at a loss when she hugged him, suddenly unable to comprehend what they were speaking about earlier. She hugged him. A girl hugged him. How many hugs has he ever had? Not many. "Oh! Whoa! Hey, no problem! It's... nothing? Aw crit!" He groaned. She had already left! Good going, Alex.
-----
The snow on the other side of the wall was just as cold as the same snow he landed in earlier. He shivered. There was snow UNDER his jacket! He could even feel some of the cold substance in his pants, too, but he couldn't mention that, especially in front of someone like Tallulah. The best thing for him to do would be to scurry back to his dorm and change quickly before someone accused him of wetting his --
"Good luck, brave knight!"
What the -- Alex looked up, just in time to see... wait. That was someone from Tallulah's videos. A senshi! Here! He gaped as she waved and -- did she just jump?! By the Triforce and Victory Theme of Final Fantasy she just flew off!
He stared, open-mouthed at the spot where Sailor Europa stood before the chill pushed him on, hurrying him inside away from the darkness and uncertainty of the night.
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