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 Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 12:25 pm
Lieutenant Zircon remembered cram week in the Destiny City Library: granted, most of her memories were through a sleep-deprived haze on energy drinks and pizza. She would sit in hushed circles with her peers and friends, trying to store as many alcohol reactions and molecules and equations in her head before she passed out, draped across one of her textbooks for a little nap before Amanda would wake her and the studying would begin again, along with another round of energy drinks and pizza. She had never thought it a healthy lifestyle, but it had certainly been an effective one, as referenced by her transcripts.
It was a shame that all of her work had gone to nothing. She had spent so many years honing her mind, and when it came down to it her only failure was one she couldn't control. All in all, it wasn't something Zircon liked to think about.
The advantage to Zircon's uniform is that it allowed her, for the most part, to walk amongst civilians without them suspecting a thing about her intentions. She even spent about fifteen minutes browsing the shelves, pretending to be interested in some encyclopedia article about railroads. As she lightly skimmed the passage, her eyes occasionally glanced up to the tables in the back, hidden by shelves from the main library. Only one girl had braved the tables, sacrificing her group for a precious bit of silence. Though she, like Zircon so long ago, had adopted an energy drink and carbs diet to keep herself awake, the lieutenant could tell her resolve was breaking, and with heavy lids the girl slumped into her DCU sweater, allowing herself a break. Only five minutes, to be sure, and then she could continue working on her study guide.
It was all the time Zircon needed.
Slowly, Zircon ambled back to the tables, trying not to look suspicious. She returned her encyclopedia to its proper place, then leaned over the girl's work, a mess of worksheets referencing Grecian pillars and faces long forgotten. Gingerly, the Negaverse Agent pressed a palm on the girl's shoulder and focused, slowly feeling the energy drain from her victim. It was almost like taking candy from a baby: if not for the fact that Zircon had not so long ago been in the girl's shoes, her starseed would have been forfeit. Silly Classics major, didn't she know there were safety in numbers?
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Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 2:55 pm
Andrea was definitely there to cram. He was feeling pretty alright about most of his finals, and ordinarily did not have too much trouble with History, but then the study guide mentioned a section on specific dates. A significant section. The boy remembered the obvious ones, but it would take some work to memorize enough of the rest of them to not utterly bomb that part of the test. The history test was tomorrow afternoon, and Andrea had thus far avoided all of the date studying - logic had told him the best idea was to wait until after he no longer had to worry about his chemistry test.
Like there was limited space in there, and he would have more room for History if he could take the Chemistry out.
Stupid, the boy knew, but whenever it came down to finals, he would resort to whatever methods felt like they would help.
From the desk where he sat, though, he suddenly felt like something was wrong. Even more wrong than his baffling inability to retain the date on which the Emancipation Proclamation had been delivered (how hard could January 1st, 1863 be?). Whatever was happening was happening at the tables behind Andrea, though, which were behind him from where he sat facing the wall. Even better, the desk had tall sides - good for privacy, but bad for discreetly looking over his shoulder.
Still, he attempted anyway, twisting around to look right at a woman in a fur-collared coat (indoors?) moving away from a girl in a sweatshirt dozing over her textbook. It would be impossible to pass that off as coincidence; but he had gotten a look at her.
He would have to decide what to do, though. Andrea had a nagging feeling that his senshi skills might be necessary ... but he was looking right at the strange woman, and he also could not just henshin up in the middle of the library.
If nothing else, the yelling would disturb the other patrons.
Andrea tried to play off his twisting completely around in his chair as casually as he could manage. Maybe run to the restroom and sneak out the back door or something? Except they all had alarms....
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 9:24 am
Zircon was never meant to be a fighter, despite her need to be recognized by the Negaverse. Her purpose had always been in the more passive arts, keeping her victims to the weak and the helpless. She knew she was no match for a senshi, and even the thought of a well-armed civilian made her uneasy. No, she was not so blind as to assume that no one could hurt her in her mineral glamour. She'd earned the scars for that lesson long ago.
And so, as she left her first victim in search of new blood, she stuffed the tiny pearls of energy into her leather pockets, eyes scanning the musty shelves. For a moment, she believed her collection to be entirely unseen, and the corners of her mouth twitched upwards, but as she glanced around, her eyes caught a pair staring back at her from amongst the books.
She froze.
Zircon's ruse as a civilian lasted only as long as no one noticed her draining energy: anyone who did enough research could identify her on that fact alone. Most damning without an actual energy read was the proud starseed patch on her shoulder, a light violet contrast to her otherwise dull attire. Perhaps the pair of eyes spying on her didn't know what she was, but she wasn't in the mood to give them the opportunity to learn more.
Her gaze lingered a moment longer than it should have, and then with a turn too abrupt to be considered graceful, Zircon began briskly walking towards the labyrinth of shelves in the nonfiction section, determined to lose her would-be peeker. She could always find a different section of the library to sap energy from: after all, there were students everywhere.
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 8:51 pm
Andrea swore mentally as she immediately vanished in the shelves - lovely that the library was such a good place to hide. But then he realized that he would not have quite so much trouble finding her once he was powered up. The lieutenant was out of sight for the moment; he could casually stroll outside and henshin up in the first available quiet spot he found. And then he would only need to follow the energy she gave off to track her down.
The boy wavered for a moment, fingers resting on his textbook as he got up. He had his wallet on him, still, and he could not imagine anyone wanting to steal his history book. There might be a fight, but Andrea felt confident that it would not last too long. He could come back for the text. He had seen people coming and going all day, sometimes disappearing from their desks with notebooks left behind for an hour or so while the got lunch elsewhere.
Trying not to look like he was in a hurry, Andrea weaved his way through the shelves towards the door as well. Around behind the library, there should be a good spot to power up.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 2:37 pm
It didn't take long for Zircon to feel safely out of the eyes of her pursuers: they didn't seem to be following her, for all the snooping around that they'd been doing. The safer thing would have been to leave the library right then, but the lieutenant had a quota to fill, a quota that she hadn't quite made on time in weeks. Whether or not she wanted to admit it, she was falling behind, and instead of leaving the library before the little brat could call the cops or something, she chose to continue her search for energy. She probably should have just taken the kid's starseed, it would have made her life easier, but part of her still couldn't stomach ending someone just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Her mission wasn't that critical.
She found her second victim slumped over maps of Ancient Rome, probably taking the same exam as the first girl. Either way, it didn't really matter what classes the girl was taking, as long as she had energy to spare for the Negaverse. Zircon placed a hand on her shoulder, making sure that this time she wasn't being watched, and in a few precious moments she had another pocketful of energy, freshly collected and ready to deliver to her General.
It would have been a good time to leave by then, and part of Zircon was ready to report back with her earnings as it was. But the little lieutenant was feeling zealous that evening, driven by the urge to make up for lost time. There was a boy, mostly asleep as he desperately tried to finish just one more page of his studies...
Zircon positioned herself in a good hiding position and watched, waiting for his heavy lids to falter and for his head to slump over. If she kept this up she would have quite the energy collection by the end of the night.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 2:41 pm
Andrea had not thought that she would stay in the library. And so he headed straight out and around to the back, where he made up behind a dumpster.
Scraped his knuckles, too; there was not nearly enough room back there for Vindemiatrix to be swinging around a magic pen all dramatic-like. But, well, there was really no other way to do it. Of course, the gloves formed over his hands, and the white fabric eagerly drank up the little red droplets of blood. Frowning, the senshi tugged it off and sucked the scratches as he wandered back out into the space behind the library.
Sailor Vindemiatrix closed his eyes and took a deep breath, concentrating on the dark spot he could feel in the area, trying to place exactly where it was. He could feel her now for sure, but the green senshi still decidedly had trouble pin-pointing the feeling. But he was fairly certain now that she had not come outside yet.
Which sucked even more than the blood spots on his glove, as he put it back on. He would just have to ... have to wait. Wait for her to come out. The Senshi of Wine could not exactly waltz into the library in his fuku and start a fight there.
But at least he had some options. Vin crouched, then hopped on top of the dumpster, landing as gently as he could manage. From there, to the roof of the library. At least from there, he could hop down on her whichever exit she used. Provided he could sense her well enough. He knew what the lieutenant looked like, at the very least.
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 1:44 pm
Finally, the boy's will was broken, and his face gradually slid from the palm of his hand to the open pages of his textbook as a temporary pillow, his breathing slow and shallow. It was then that Zircon continued her approach, slowly and nonchalantly, to her third grab for the night. Her superiors would be so pleased with her progress, surely, and not a single snag was in sight!
Well, except that sudden blip of a senshi's signal. Speak of the devil.
Zircon had been mere moments away from gathering the boy's energy, but with a senshi on the prowl she didn't have time to spare in finishing the collection. With a presence that close, the senshi in question had to be aware of her location, and it wouldn't be long before they'd track her down. She could always try to power down and throw them off her trail, but there were eyes everywhere, and she couldn't risk her identity over something that she could potentially slink away from.
Besides, her rooftop getaway plan sounded a little better than walking home in her school clothes in the middle of the night.
But how to escape? Keeping tabs on the signal in case it got any closer (it didn't seem to be moving much, but it was always hard to tell), she thought out the library's general floor plan, deciding on one of the lesser-used exits by the reference materials. With a brisk pace, she made for her planned escape, letting her out into the warm night air and the haze of the streetlights in the back parking lot. The signal was still present, but as far as she could see, the senshi wasn't in sight, and with a shake of her head she put her hands in her pockets and began to walk into the night as quickly as possible. Touching the energy pearls she'd collected help to make her feel a little less angry at her sudden interruption, a small consolation prize. Now she just needed to make it away with what she had: some other senshi had beaten the pride from her long ago.
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