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 Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:34 pm
Another night, another patrol, and Irene still hadn't learned her lesson. She expected there to be some kind of sign or event marking her transformation from weak, wriggly caterpillar to tough, strong butterfly. Not that she had met many tough, strong butterflies. Perhaps she needed to work on her metaphors almost as badly as she needed to work on her fighting skills.
She was breaking so many rules by doing what she was doing, but she didn't care. For a year and a half she had followed the rules, and she had learned nothing. It was only the people who did things their way who learned and changed in any meaningful way. So clearly she had to do things their way as well. No partners, even though she was still forbidden from patrolling alone. She hadn't even let anyone know where she was going, or that she was out on patrol in the first place. And she was in a part of town that she didn't usually frequent, even in the daylight hours. Things had to change, so clearly the best course of action was to change everything, right down to her attitude.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," she sang, feeling a bit silly as she did. This wasn't like her, not at all. But that was the whole point of this exercise, and so she strolled down an alley, almost begging for something to come and fight her.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 6:08 pm
Nickeline was one of those people who did whatever she wanted but unlike Irene she wasn't brought to the line of insanity with a desire to be stronger. She was strong, and she didn't get strong by being so weak-minded. She didn't need a rank to prove her strength, and was never afraid to fight someone she should actually kneel to instead. Black eyes, broken bones and bruises had carved her way to where she was, not acting like someone she wasn't. If Nickeline could only see what Irene was thinking because she'd be pissed.
She did sense Irene though, and like every other day Nickeline found herself investigating. Power signals were like red flags, signaling to Nickeline that someone was ready to fight. She didn't understand the tune this purple senshi was singing but she was more than willing to come out, fist first.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:45 pm
Irene's gut reaction to a chaotic aura was distress. She knew that it was her job to fight these things, and now that she was hunting them down, she really didn't have any right to feel uncomfortable. They just felt so off to her, so wrong, and while there was a certain pleasure in eliminating the source of the wrongness, that didn't mean that she enjoyed the process nearly as much as the result.
When she actually saw the source of the energy, she froze automatically. Irene had never fought a human enemy by herself before. She had actually never fought a human enemy at all. In larger battles, she was better used as support, and on patrols all she had ever encountered were youma. She had no experience with the Negaverse hierarchy, and while she recalled vaguely hearing about evil senshi, she had never seen one up close before.
So her guard, which wasn't very good even under the best of circumstances, faltered as she stared at the enemy she had found. Youma were one thing, but what was she supposed to do with this?
Ducking seemed a good place to start. After that, though, she had no idea what to do.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:13 pm
Her opponent had ducked, which was a good start. Most people typically were too dumb to, Nickeline found, so she was used to her fist colliding with their face. It both infuriated her and gave her hope of a real fight she'd been missing, causing her blood to boil with both anger and excitement. This senshi didn't seem like much of a fighter though, probably because she'd ducked or maybe it was the ducks in her hair. Doves? Well, they looked like ducks to her.
"Hmph," she growled, rolling her balls around her neck to keep them out of the way as she pulled her leg up to attempt to kick the evading senshi.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:24 pm
The good news was that Irene had dodged the first blow. The bad news was that there was another one coming, and she had to act fast. Acting fast was another one of those things she wasn't good at, another reason she had to improve herself. The best she could do was throw herself backwards, which meant that she evaded the leg but left herself wide open for a follow-up attack.
Irene had been looking for a fight, and she certainly found one.
This was different than what she had expected, though. So while she tried to recover from her bad dodge, she couldn't help but sneak a curious look at her opponent. Yet another lesson that Irene hadn't learned yet was not to talk and fight at the same time, and her curiosity won out over her drive to prove herself for a brief moment. "What are you, exactly? I've never met someone like you before."
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:37 pm
It frustrated Nickeline that this senshi kept dodging but at the same time it brought a grin to her face. She loved this, the feeling of battle rushing through her veins. She was made for this, she was meant for this very purpose. What this purpose evaded to was questionable but she was meant to fight, no ifs ands or buts. It meant that she had more than enough attacks up her sleeve, using her elbow to take advantage of her bad dodge.
And then Irene had to do one thing Nickeline hated: SHE OPENED HER YAP AND SPOKE. Well, if she was going to speak to her in English, a language she could barely understand, she was going to give her the same respect, or so she thought she would be.
"Don't you realize that we're fighting? I would be more than happy to shove my fist into your face if it'll help you shut up. Also, why do you have ducks in your hair? Did they come to nest for the winter? Do they s**t up there?" She said entirely in Greek, grinning the whole way through. She was getting a little vulgar near then end of it and pretty tactless the entire way through but she felt happy to finally dish what everyone gave her.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:52 pm
In other circumstances, Nickeline might have made an excellent teacher. She was clearly experienced at fighting and good at strategy. Irene tried to get out of the way of the elbow, but she was practically sprawled on the ground, and there wasn't a whole lot she could do. Her shoulder throbbed and the arm that was supporting her collapsed as the hit connected. That HURT.
She was about to try some sort of counter, anything, but then the strange senshi spoke. Irene wasn't sure what surprised her more: the fact that she was speaking Greek, or what exactly she was saying. That was... well, to say that it was "coarse" would be putting it nicely. A few of the nastier bits were vocabulary that she wasn't quite familiar with, but she got the gist and was rather disgusted by it.
Usually, Irene didn't speak Greek unless she was talking with her father, who had insisted she learn the language from a young age. She had a bit of a love/hate relationship with that part of her heritage. But now she was quite pleased to be able to respond. "Does your mother know you speak that way? I'd wash your mouth out with soap, but there's so much filth there that I'm not sure it would do any good." Not much of an insult, but Irene disliked foul language on principle. There were too many beautiful words out there for her to focus on the terrible ones. When used properly, simple, everyday words could be far more effective than the shock value of crassness.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:56 pm
That was definitely not what she had expected, and there was a very obvious look of confusion plastered across Nickeline's face. She, wait, what? It wouldn't be completely unreasonable for someone to know Greek and be an American but the thought had seemed so far away and she'd completely threw the idea out the window but now it was staring her in the face and she had ducks on her head.
She was actually excited to be able to talk to someone and then she realized the problem here. They were on different sides, and besides all of that she still really wanted to punch her in the face. It left her standing there almost dumbfounded, unsure of what she actually wanted to do. She'd waited for this moment for months and months and now here it was. The world, the world ******** sucked.
"My mother is dead..." she stated in a low murmur, playing the part of a loss child as her eyes fell down and her head lowered. Her mother wasn't really dead but maybe Nickeline thought a different kind of battle would be fun, one that got to use words she missed so much.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:09 pm
Irene used the distraction to get to her feet, but she wasn't ready to attack again yet. She wasn't sure she wanted to attack again at all. This was a human being. A human with hopes and dreams and yes, very bad language. In a world where her father had gotten his way more often, Irene might have considered this girl her countrywoman. As it was, she felt a strange kinship towards the person whose face she'd wanted to smash in a few moments ago.
Then she spoke again, and Irene realized she had landed a hit. It just wasn't a physical one. "I am so sorry for your loss." What else could she say? It wasn't like she'd been aiming for a nerve with her words. Now she felt obligated to fix things somehow, but she was afraid of making another blunder. She needed more information before she could proceed. "Do you not speak English? Where are you from? When did you come here?" And why, she wanted to ask, but bit down on that last question. Whatever the girl's reason for coming, she had been drawn into a battle, and that wasn't a memory she wanted to dredge up now.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:26 pm
And Bingo was her name-o. Nickeline had shot her arrow and struck a bull's eye, getting exactly the kind of reaction someone said to someone when they found out they have suffered from a loss. She played her part, looking as forlorn as she could without overselling it. She wanted her game to continue a bit because otherwise they'd go straight back to fighting or Irene would run away and then Nickeline would be stuck in a world of silence again.
"Thank you," she said, seeming like it would be the most appropriate thing to say. "I am originally from the port of Thessaloniki in Greece. I don't like English, and I wasn't prepared to come to an English-speaking country before I was forced to..." she said with a sigh, rolling her fingers through the balls of her hair.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:42 pm
Not for a moment did Irene suspect that what Nickeline was saying wasn't true. She just nodded in what she hoped was an understanding way. Her knowledge of geography was hardly absolute, but of course she knew of Thessaloniki, the co-capital. Usually she tried to distance herself from Greek culture, since it was what her father wanted her to focus on, but now she wished that she had spent a little more time with it. Other than the very basics, she didn't know much, and without knowledge, there wasn't a whole lot that she could do to help.
Because, much to her surprise, she did want to help. In that moment, it didn't matter that they were on different sides, though she knew it would probably start mattering again sooner than she would have liked. Despite their differences, she saw a strange girl lost in a strange land, and she wanted to do something to fix that.
"I see..." The question of why seemed to be the elephant in the room, and Irene couldn't keep ignoring it forever. "If I may ask, why were you forced to come here?" She was well aware that she might not like the answer she got, assuming she got one, but she asked anyway and simply crossed her fingers for a good response.
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:52 pm
The question of why she was forced to come here was one that she often thought about but lately it had been for different reasons. She had been living a normal life in Greece, causing trouble around every corner when one night she had her life change forever. She had wanted power, sure, that was no delusion there but what she got was not what anyone had expected.
"Because of this," she said, her hands forming a small heart like shape over the gap in her chest. It was obvious she meant that she had been corrupted into the Negaverse. As much as people lied to protect themselves, every lie had a bit of truth in it and this one was one of those situations.
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:26 pm
While Irene had suspected that this girl's corruption had to do with the other problems she faces, she wasn't expecting the situation to be presented to her in such a physical way. Somehow it made everything seem more real. She wasn't just speaking with another girl who spoke Greek. She was speaking with someone whose very essence had been twisted into something that it was never meant to be. The hole seemed to stare at her, and Irene felt a twinge of guilt, like she was looking at something very private and personal. She could only manage it for a moment before turning her head in a mixture of disgust and fear.
When she had been awakened, it had been terrifying, but she'd had support from ********* and the other Asteroids. Who were not currently at the top of her "people I want to think about" list, but she had to admit that without them, the whole experience might have been very different. With them, she felt like she had found a whole new family. A family she was not currently on speaking terms with, which made it a lot more like her actual family than she was willing to admit right then. Was that what had appealed to this girl, what made her willing to be made into... that?
Her voice shook a little as she spoke. Funny how just a few words could completely change the tone of the conversation. "Is that..." Irene gestured vaguely at Nickeline's chest area, unable to look at it again. "Is that what you wanted? Are you happy like this? Putting aside the fact that you're here, in a country you weren't prepared for... is that who you really wanted to be?" Because if it was, then despite whatever common ground they might have, Irene wasn't sure she would ever understand how this girl felt. She wasn't sure she even wanted to.
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:56 pm
"Who doesn't want power?" she asked, her hands moving back to her side. She was obviously avoiding the real question here but Irene was starting to get in a little closer than she wanted anyone to be. She had been propositioned but since she was just a human then the deal was something else entirely. She hadn't really known what she was getting herself into, and they didn't know the situation would become this either. She had gotten more power but was it worth it or was the cost too high?
"What are you willing to pay for power?" she asked, this question with a low voice as her head fell down a bit. It was a question she wished she could have thought about with the knowledge she had now. She didn't have a family anymore, not like Irene had gained, and instead she was surrounded by people who literally couldn't understand her both physically and probably emotionally.
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 10:29 pm
Power. When put that way, it sounded so simple, so silly. If one wanted power, there were other ways to obtain it that didn't involve making a deal with the devil. Irene opened her mouth to say something to that effect, and snapped it shut almost immediately. Wasn't power also what she was seeking? By throwing herself into battles and driving away the people close to her, she had been trying to get the power to take care of herself. The power to protect other people without having to rely on somebody else. But that was different than power for power's sake. It had to be. Didn't it?
For a moment, Irene saw that the two of them were more alike than she had assumed, and that terrified her. She pushed the thought away, where it couldn't hurt her, and shook her head vehemently. "I do want power. Power to protect myself, and power to protect others. And I'm willing to work for that power." That was what this whole exercise was for. If she had to prove herself, she would. If she had to get more experience, she'd do that too. She had been working all along, and would keep doing so until her work was recognized, no matter what kind of effort it took. "And you? What do you want power for?"
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