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 Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 8:46 pm
Patrolling without another Asteroid was a big no-no. Irene knew this, but there she was, without anyone else, edging down side streets and along back roads- places she wouldn't even walk during the daytime. She knew that if Iris ever caught wind of this, she'd get the mother of all lectures. The thought was not very appealing.
Yet it wasn't a patrol, not exactly. Lydia's new hours at Maize Maizier took a good bit of getting used to. She was often kept out later than she liked, and didn't feel comfortable walking back to Crystal Academy by herself. Taxis were always an option, and one she had relied on time and again. But while she got used to her work schedule, her patrol time had taken a hit. By walking back instead of getting a ride, she could attempt to do a little something about it. And if anyone asked, she could just say that she felt safer walking alone at night as a senshi, rather than a little rich girl.
Besides, it wasn't as though she planned to fight, though she'd learned the hard way that if presented with an enemy, a battle might be unavoidable. All she wanted to do was wander around and make sure all was right with the world, or at least her little slice of it.
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Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 5:03 am
Columba was getting better and better at sneaking out after curfew. She just had to listen until she heard her father walk down the hall and go to bed and BAM! She was free.
The inconvenience was negligible, the guilt was nonexistent.
And oh look, there was another senshi! Columba's experiences with senshi who weren't her sister or trying to kill her were very near nonexistant. But Chaonis was cool enough, and she was eager to branch out.
"Hi! What are you doing?" The concept of a patrol was foreign. It had been explained once to her and filed away as boring.
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Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:38 pm
"Oh!" Irene had no idea that she wasn't the only senshi milling about these parts. She had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that the chibi's energy signature had gone completely unnoticed. She was just lucky that it was someone on her side, and not a bad guy. Or a member of her team, which would have results nearly as catastrophic.
Once she had gotten over her initial shock, Irene looked over the other senshi, smiling a little. She'd never had a problem with chibis, partly because the two on her team seemed to handle themselves well, partly because she had been pretty young when she started, though not quite that young. "I was just, ah, on my way home." An honest answer, but not the whole truth. "And you? I do hope you're not patrolling on your own at this hour."
The hypocrisy of this statement was gut-wrenching, but Irene did manage to deliver it with a straight face. Barely.
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Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 9:30 pm
"So what if I am?" Columba puffed out her cheeks and adjusted her hat. So what if she was a chibi? So what if this girl was older? They were the same size, just about, and she jumped at noises like a mewling kitten from what Columba had seen.
Columba was certain if she had been cornered by an enemy she would roundhouse kick them in the face, but that was part of the cinematic experience going on in her head where she was The Bride and everyone else was a Crazy 88 mook.
"I am just out, doin' stuff." Patrolling implied responsibility she didn't really want. Besides, Chaonis' cool apathy as he showed her the ropes was something that had hit a note with her, and something she wanted to imitate.
"What are you doin' walking home powered up? My sister says dads and moms aren't allowed to know about this stuff. Do you tell your dad?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 11:14 pm
Irene frowned slightly, not out of anger, but confusion and concern. "I apologize if I sounded accusatory. I simply wanted to make sure you were doing anything dangerous or rash." And Irene would really know about doing things like that, and their consequences. "I did not mean to imply that you were not able to take care of yourself."
Yet she couldn't quite shake the feeling that this girl wasn't quite as familiar with being a senshi as she seemed to imply. Maybe it was the fact that she didn't use some of the terminology she'd learned over the course of the past couple of years, or maybe it was her surprising level of confidence, which Irene had to smile at. It reminded her so much of herself that she had to wonder, if she could get past this less than stellar first impression, could they be friends?
Not if this girl was going to keep up the accusations, they couldn't. "No, my father certainly doesn't know about this. It would be unsafe if he did." A thought occurred to her, and she frowned again. "Wait, have you told your sister that you're a senshi? That wasn't a good idea. If she knows about senshi, then other people- bad people- might go after her. And I'm sure you don't want that, right?"
Even though she felt obligated to inform the chibi about her mistake, Irene wasn't sure what to do about it. Someone who was told something couldn't be un-told.
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Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 5:21 am
"What?" Columba's brow knit in confusion as she stared at the other girl, trying to decipher what she just said.
The problem was she hadn't revealed herself to her sister and couldn't figure out why she would assume she did. Obviously because she knew about senshi stuff, but since that wasn't the route Columba had gone, it wasn't the one she assumed.
"Uh. No, why would I tell my stupid sister?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 10:32 pm
"Ah." Well, that was not terribly expected. If Irene had been confused before, now she was totally boggled, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Because really, what?
The only way to get through it was to talk it out. "Setting aside the issue of whether your sister is stupid or not- which, not knowing your sister, I can't assess, but I somehow doubt- the fact remains that she is giving you advice on being a senshi. Specifically, not to tell your parents about it. While I believe that honesty is important where possible, in this case I feel that advice is quite valid. Your parents should not ever know about this.
"However, for your sister to be able to give you that advice, she would have to know about senshi. Since most normal people believe we're terrorists or gang members or the like..." Irene flinched; she hated the image they had in the public, but there wasn't a whole lot they could do about it. "Because of that view, most don't know the truth about us. Since your sister does, I can only assume she knows because you told her."
Yet the girl had firmly denied that, and Irene had to wonder why. "Since you claim that is not the case, one must wonder how else she knows about senshi, enough to give you the warning that she did. So either she knows a senshi other than you, or..." Or she was one herself. With a sister who was totally okay mentioning that to a stranger.
Suddenly, Irene was very glad she was an only child.
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Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 12:44 pm
Columba crossed her arms and leaned back with her mouth pressed in a defiant little straight line at the defense of her sister.
Until Irene did her best to reason out the conundrum in front of them, and then she just kind of looked like a frog. "Oh! Wait, u-uh... um..."
Did she just give something away? She didn't mean to! Columba was suddenly done being defiant and gripped both sides of her hat. "It's not what you think," She said defensively, like one of both of them would be in trouble.
"I-it's not important anyway."
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Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 8:12 pm
It was pretty easy to tell that the chibi had made some sort of slip up, and Irene was proud of herself for being able to unravel it. She was also still kind of confused, and even more concerned than she had been before. Whichever cat had awakened this girl had clearly left out a few important bits of information. Suddenly, Irene was sorry she'd never spoken to any cats other than *********. Knowing the patterns that others followed might help.
"On the contrary, I think it's very important." It was hard not to sound accusatory, but she did her best to keep things calm and easy. "If you say that sort of thing around me- someone you've never met before- well then, you might say it around anyone. Even the enemy." Unless, Irene realized with a shudder, that had already happened. "Oh dear. Um, if I may ask, how long have you been awakened? And how many people have you spoken to, as you are now?"
Maybe they were different after all, and this girl didn't try to have discourses with bad guys. One could always hope.
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Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 7:13 pm
"Few weeks," Columba huffed in regards to how long she'd been awakened. She crossed her arms and tried her best to look authoritative.
"My sister knows all 'bout this senshi stuff on her own okay I didn't tell her nothing. And uh..."
She paused. "Not very many people. Sheena, Chaonis, Maia... Euphrenrensynees or however you say it. He's a chibi too."
She narrowed her eyes in a side long glance of suspicion. "You don't look that much older than me, why're you so up on your high horse?"
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Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 8:40 pm
A few weeks sounded about right. Long enough to get used to the role and feel comfortable in it, but not so long as to have a bunch of experience. Irene could hardly claim to be the best tutor in the world, and she knew more than anyone that she still had a lot to learn about being a senshi. But in this case, her experience trumped the chibi's, and that meant that her duty was to make sure everything was A-OK.
She suspected that the sister was a senshi herself, but didn't ask outright. It would be rude. And besides, she could be wrong. Irene had never met a normal person who knew the truth behind senshi, but that didn't mean they didn't exist.
The list of people sounded innocuous. Maia was certainly safe, and another chibi could hardly be called harmful. Neither Sheena nor Chaonis sounded like a Negaverse name, so hopefully they were allies as well. "Okay, good. No bad guys, then? I know you know better than to let your identity slip in front of them, but little clues like that can provide a lot of information. For example, if they know to look for a kid about your age with an older sister, that narrows things down. If your sister knows about senshi, that narrows things down even more. You see?" Maybe the thing with Psyche had made her a bit paranoid, but having to explain to someone why other people might want them dead really opened her eyes. Psyche certainly wasn't the only one the Negaverse wanted dead. They would leap on a chance to get rid of any of them.
"I'm allowed to be 'on my high horse,' as you put it, because I've been doing this for longer." Being accused of arrogance wasn't anything new for Irene, and she brushed it aside, choosing to focus on the facts. "I've been at this for nearly two years, and have learned a great deal, both from experience and from my teammates. A lot of those lessons were... difficult. I'd like to save you the trouble of learning them the hard way."
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Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 5:25 am
"Yeah, like you know everything!" Columba countered childishly, crossing her arms.
She wasn't so much mad at Irene, she just hated being on the ignorant end of the spectrum here. She liked to know everything and wasn't handling being the 'new kid' very well, especially when she had so clearly made a mistake and she knew it.
She powered down, just to be defiant, stuck out her tongue, and started storming off.
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Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 6:20 pm
Irene wasn't done yet. This was serious, and she wanted to make sure that this girl was aware of that. But before she could present her next argument, the chibi powered down and started to leave. Irene started to follow, then froze.
She had been expecting a stranger. While this kid wasn't someone Irene could claim to know, she wasn't a stranger either.
"Ω Θεέ μου!" she screeched, her legs finally working again, quickly closing the distance between them. "You're..." Irene paused again. She couldn't remember if she'd ever heard this girl referred to by her name, and they had never been formally introduced. What had Evelyn called her? "You're Day, right?" Even before her question was answered, she knew she was right.
This wasn't just some random reckless kid. It was Evelyn's sister. Which, Irene realized, gave a lot of credence to her theory that the mystery sister who knew about senshi was one. She would have been rather pleased about it if she wasn't totally shocked by the revelation.
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Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 5:39 am
Dana halted and cringed at the screech, but when Irene asked her if her name was 'Day', something only usually invoked by her sister or father, she turned pale.
Yes, obviously, this was just what they were discussing and it sucked that at the end of the day she had to be right, stupid Irene, but mostly, now, there was another problem.
She had been around her family, somewhere, at some point, and that wasn't good for ********>," She swore before colliding with Irene in a full on body tackle and grabbing her by the collar. "Who the hell are you? Where do you know me from?" Her grip, and her clenched, grinding teeth tightened. "Do you know my sister?"
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Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 1:25 pm
That, Irene reflected, could have gone better.
But she was right. She was right and this was Evelyn's sister and she was a senshi. For a brief moment, Irene was hurt that she hadn't been informed about this important development. Then she released those feelings, knowing that it only made sense. Everything she'd said about protecting identities was right. Why would Evelyn endanger her sister by having more people know who- or what- she was?
Because it could prevent situations like this, that was why.
Before she could explain, she was tackled, bowled over, and grabbed by the collar. She struggled for a brief moment before relaxing. This was definitely not the moment for a fight, not with an ally, not with her friend's sister. It was pretty clear that no explanation would be sufficient now, considering how the situation had escalated. So instead, ignoring her own rules about identity protection, Irene powered down as well.
"I'm not sure we've ever been properly introduced," Lydia said politely, trying to gently ease her collar out of Dana's grip. She had to stay calm, even though she was still freaking out a bit inside. "My name is Lydia. Or, on some occasions, Sailor Irene. And you are?"
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