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 Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 8:40 pm
It seemed that this park was fated to be the site of violence for Orah, the kind that was directed at her specifically. This time, though, it had been a Mirror Wraith that had come for her, the second rogue she'd had chase her. At least this time she'd manage to loose it when she'd doubled back... Flopped down on a park bench, her booted feel stretched out, she struggled to slow her breathing, her head laid back.
What was she going to do with all this? Orah hadn't transformed since the attack, save for that one training session, and she'd been attacked twice by monsters. Was 'retiring' from being a senshi really the answer? But on the other hand, she was only safe when she wasn't powered up. When she was a senshi, she could be sensed by the enemy and that made her a walking target for as long as she wore her fuku. She couldn't face Painite again... just the thought of it gave her the shakes.
She was so useless... it hardly even mattered if she powered up or not, if this was how she dealt with self-doubt. Orah knew she lacked confidence, but that didn't help her gain any. She had a lot to think about as she lifted her head to stare out over the playground, the setting sun glinting off the swings and slide.
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Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:29 am
Times were tough these days. ********* was finding she wasn't able to stray too far from Ellie's home, mostly due to Anemone's current condition. Fortunately, the park was close enough where the cat wouldn't be missed too long by the foreign girl.
The Mauvian typically found her recent shorter patrols to be quite uneventful, though today it seemed not to be the case. A girl had been chased by something that was clearly a sort of monster, but also distinctly not a youma. In all honesty, ********* had never encountered such a thing. Yet, the girl had been able to lose the creature, and soon enough was resting upon a bench.
Perhaps that could have been all to the story, if it weren't for the fact that ********* recognized the girl. She hadn't exactly directly introduced herself to the girl at the training session, but the manx was observant enough to notice that Zia wasn't the only one who hadn't taken powered form during the training. It was easy enough to understand why Zia hadn't taken her other forms for practicality sake, but this other girl clearly was more than just a simple civilian.
Rather than announce herself, the guardian merely hopped up on the bench next to the girl (though her collar was a dead give away thanks to that bell jingling as she hopped up). She didn't say a word (since most cats did not speak), but she nudged at the girl's thigh with her paw before tilting her head and looking up eagerly.
Introduce yourself please seemed to be her silent plea.
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Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 10:16 am
The jingle of a bell broke through her thoughts and Orah jumped, feeling a small paw pat her thigh. The feeling was a familiar one, though Lola was a good deal smaller than the cat that had suddenly decided to join her on the bench.
Sitting up, Orah instinctively reached to scratch behind her ears before she realized what she was doing.
"Oh! Sorry... I should have asked first." She said as she pulled her hand back, holding it up in apology. Even if she didn't vaguely remember the cat from the training session, the star on her forehead would have been a dead giveaway, as it matched Poseidon's. "I have a kitten at home, its sort of second nature. I... think I saw you at training, didn't I? My name's Orah. When I transform I'm Sailor Ida, I was matched up with Shangri-La."
It felt a little strange to be talking to a cat, but not as odd as it had been the first time. It was really too bad she hadn't gotten more time to talk to the guardian that had awakened her, for more reasons than one.
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Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 7:57 pm
(Don't worry about quote-tagging me, it has no effect xd )
The magic words had been said. With a sigh of relief, the feline glanced about, left and then right, before offering her own words. A Mauvian could never be too careful about who might be around.
"I don't mind in all honesty... it feels quite nice!" As if to encourage the girl to continue, the feline attempted to nudge her again, this time with her cheek against the girl's thigh.
However, now knowing the girl's true identity, it did lead to some very obvious questions on ********* part. She could bring it up eventually.
"Yes, I was at the training that Maia set up. It was a pretty good exercise I found... especially for Irene... one of my girls."
A pause.
"...it would seem like you just got a good work out just now too... if I saw what I thought I saw correctly..."
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Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2013 9:04 pm
Orah's fingers automatically found the soft cat ears again, rubbing around their bases and the fluffy back of the neck. Her fingers slowed at the turn of the conversation though, and she glanced away.
"Oh... me running away from a wraith? Yeah... that was pretty much it." She said softly as she stroked the guardian, finding comfort in the familiar cat feel. It was proof of what people said about cats being therapeutic, she supposed. Crossing her ankles and tucking them under the bench, she sighed softly, feeling like a fool again.
"I'm... I can't transform when I'm by myself. Its not safe. I could only do it at training because Chaonis, and a couple other Eternals, were there. Plus the cats. I heard someone say you could suppress our energy signature." The teen bit her lip, envious of that ability. "But I can't have that all the time, and when I don't, I can't transform. I'm a pretty useless senshi."
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 9:03 am
As any cat would do that was worth their fur would do, the cat easily snuck into the girl's lap, settling in as the fingers worked their magic upon her small round body. She silently noted the creature's designation, tucking it away for later use, but didn't need to say such a thing to Orah who seemed to be going through her own issues at the moment.
"...I believe that you mean 'I won't transform'..." the feline offered gently in observation. "...see... if you had lost your henshin pen, or perhaps had it temporarily taken away, then can't would work well." There was a period of time where Sailor Iris couldn't transform because ********* had taken away her henshin pen. However, the guardian wasn't exactly going to let a girl with such a huge injury turn into a senshi and cause further injury to herself.
The manx had a very conversational manner to her. Her words could have been seen as scolding, but she just had a way of delivering that didn't make one feel very uncomfortable at all. "...'won't' means you have decided you will not try to transform despite still having the ability to. And from what you have just told me... the reason you have decided upon is that it is not safe unless you are in a group? Is this correct?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 9:47 am
The teen wilted as the manx corrected her wording, lowering her eyes to the concrete. With the cat in her lap now, she let both hands scratch in her neck fur.
"No, you're right... it's won't. I'm scared to transform." Orah said softly, feeling the fear rise up a little again. Even though she had to appear as any other civilian right now, she still felt exposed here in the park. There was no way Painite could know who she really was, but logic had very little to do with this. "I'm scared Painite will read me and come after me again. I... I almost died last time. I was only lucky that I had my phone and called for help."
She rolled her head back against the back of the bench, staring up at the sky for a moment. "I don't know what to do. I'm next to useless as a senshi anyway, and now I'm terrified to even transform. Maybe... maybe I should quit." Even Orah could hear the whine that was creeping into her voice and she sighed, feeling her shoulders sag. Self-esteem had always been an issue for her and she hated how she looked and sounded when she started to feel sorry for herself.
"Maybe if I were better... stronger or better at fighting. Maybe then I could do more, be more effective."
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 2:18 pm
Ah Painite, that was a name as familiar as ever! A General who knew how to stir up trouble in the most noticeable of ways. Orah had every right to be scared of that woman, but at the same time, her strategy with dealing with it made the cat's ears twitch slightly.
"...Painite likes to scare the senshi." she said carefully, as if checking the waters to see how well her observation faired. "...If you quit, you really are giving her exactly what she wants."
While the scratching still continued to run along the back of her ears, the cat gazed away, looking over the park. "At least you have the ability to fight. Many people in this city were not given the ability to fight against the Negaverse. All they can do is simply accept the fate that they will die at the hands of chaos." The cat let out a gentle sigh, as if acknowledging she had witnessed such horrors happening to the regular, everyday person.
"I know the saying is that there is strength in numbers.... but one is a number as well, Orah."
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 8:06 pm
Closing her eyes for a moment, Orah sighed, smoothing her hands down the cat's soft sides.
"I think ripping out my starseed is what she wants, but... you have a point. One less senshi, whether I'm dead or hiding..." She said softly. A lot of what the guardian said made sense to her. There were people out there who didn't have her power, but were just as likely to be found by the monsters she had spent the last few months killing. But... she was a person too.
"I... I didn't ask for this. I'm just a girl, I'm not even out of highschool yet. I've been... fumbling around in the dark, killing monsters, saving people, like I was some kind of super hero, but I'm not. I'm just a teenage girl and I really could have died... and I don't even know what I'm fighting for, what this is all about." Reaching up, she rubbed her face with a hand. "I've got a little brother who's growing up too fast and a father who'd starve to death if I didn't remind him to eat... what would they do if I wasn't around?"
It was starting to feel like she was finding excuses to justify herself to someone she barely knew... and a talking cat, even. What had happened to her life?
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Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 7:05 am
"...it is a big responsibility to be a senshi... and responsibilities rarely are easy." ********* was easily able to sympathize with the girl and her plight. It was a common plight for many a senshi. Responsibility versus the civilian life.
"...I am just curious... if you hadn't killed the monsters... and if you hadn't saved those people... if you hadn't been there to help... how many more victims would the Negaverse have claimed?" There was a chance that these civilians could have been spared if another senshi happened upon the scene, but the chances were that the other senshi would have been too late.
Rolling slightly so she had part of her stomach exposed to the girl, she looked up to her face. "Say none of this ever happened. And say that your little brother or your father found themselves targeted by the Negaverse. Would you be glad that you were not in a senshi uniform? Or would you want to do something to help?"
She paused slightly before adding. "It's easy enough to put the pen away and call it a day. However, if you use the power responsibly, you have the ability to protect those you love. I understand that the Negaverse can be scary, but if we all just gave up and hid, then the city would soon enough be theirs."
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Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 8:41 am
Orah idly scratched the cat's belly when it was offered, wondering as she looked down at this tiny advisor who seemed so knowing, and yet acted just like any other cat.
The idea of her father or brother being found by the negaverse made her pale and her fingers stilled in the soft fur. Something like that would be a hundred times worse than anything Painite could do to her. The thought of the two people she loved most in the world being hurt made her heart squeeze painfully in her chest. Even though she'd only been four, she still remembered what it had been like when her mother had died of cancer. Her father had been so sad... he'd never really recovered from it and was never the same man afterwards. Most of her brother's own trouble-making was an effect of that loss, even though he'd only been two at the time. She remembered how much it had hurt, to loose someone she had loved so much. She'd forgotten it, burying the pain in taking care of her family.
Looking at things through this new view changed a lot of what she had been feeling. What if that stranger had been someone she loved? They were certainly someone that someone else cared about... what if they had died like her mother? More pain and heartache would spread out from that single event. It was like an epiphany, like a light switched on or a camera coming into focus.
"T-this... was why I was fighting, before." Orah stumbled as she said it, feeling for the first time a sort of wonder at it. "I always knew, but I didn't... know. Sort of. I think maybe I understand the why of it, now." Her fingers picking up their gentle scratching again as the teen seemed to relax a bit, the sort of relaxing she hadn't done since before the attack... maybe even since she became a senshi. Things made a lot more sense to her now, though it might not have seemed like such a change to someone else. It wasn't so much thought as... understanding. Acceptance.
Yes, she was scared. She would probably always be scared, but she had let that distract her from the whole reason she had been fighting, even though the old her, the one who hadn't been a senshi, would never have dreamed of fighting with anyone or anything.
"I'm sorry I dumped all my troubles on you." Orah said as she rubbed the cat's head gently in apology. "You didn't even tell me what your name was and I've been treating you like my therapist."
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Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 5:18 pm
The feline let out a little purr, her little paws latching onto the petting finger as the girl finally seemed to come to terms with her own role. When she pointed out the obvious failure on the feline's part in regards to introductions, ********* mouth couldn't help but form an "o" shape.
"Oh goodness, where are my manners?!" She let go of the girl's finger and squirmed and rolled back to her feet to stand up.
"My name is *********! And truth be told, it was no bother at all!" She lowered her upper body down slightly as if she was bowing a bit with her introduction.
"Part of our duties as guardians is to 'serve and protect.' So if serving you by listening to your problems is how I can help, I am always willing to lend an ear, Orah!" With that, the feline lowered her haunches down so she was at least sitting once again.
"...so, might I ask if you have your henshin pen on you? I would like to see it for a moment if you do have it on you!"
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Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 7:23 pm
Orah smiled brightly as ********* bowed, some of her old sweetness coming back as the fear eased its grip on her. Sure, it was still there, but she felt stronger now, more sure of what she needed to do. Things weren't perfect, by any means, but could use her fear as motivation to keep others from feeling the same pain she had.
"What? Oh, its right here. I've always got it on me." The sudden request for her pen was confusing, but she obediently pulled it out to show the guardian. Bright purple pen with a shiny gold top, the image of an orchid raised on the lopsided oval at the top... she'd never seen anything like it before Poseidon had given it to her, and now it was one of her most important possessions. "It's pretty normal, from what I've seen. Is something wrong with it...?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 8:12 pm
Once the pen was held out in front of her, the cat bobbed her head up and down, then stood up on all four paws again.
"Mmmmhmmmmm..." she said, looking at the pen from one angle, them moving a bit to look at it from another. It seemed as if she was contemplating something.
Rather suddenly, the little manx seemed to pounce at the pen with both of her forepaws, pressing down on the object as Orah still continued to hold onto the pen.
"Hold still please!" she said in a playful manner, smiling up at the girl before closing her eyes to concentrate.
The pen itself soon enough started to glow, eventually giving off a hot white light. As it glowed, it seemed to shift, changing shape from the familiar one that Orah knew into something completely different.
Well, not completely different, for it was still a pen.
Once the henshin pen stopped glowing, the feline opened her eyes and took a couple steps back before hopping off the girl's lap altogether.
"...would you humor a cat and call out 'Ida Asteroid Power, Make-up?'" She glanced about, quite certain there were no people around to witness the girl's potential henshin.
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 12:10 am
 Orah blinked down wide-eyed at the cat as her pen changed, staring in wonder at the new form that was revealed. This was probably the last thing she had been expecting, as was the sudden request to transform.
Taking a deep breath, she sighed and let it out again as she stood. Well, no time like now to test out her new-found confidence. Lifting the pen in the familiar way, she said the 'magic words'.
"Ida Asteroid Power, Make-up!" She said as she felt the warmth and the light wrap around her. In many ways it was the same feeling as ever, but there was a different quality to it this time, a new note in the music she heard in her head and felt on her skin. She could feel petals brushing her skin and then the weight of her fuku around her, different than before.
When the light faded, Ida was left standing puzzled in a brand new fuku and new power humming through her. She felt more grounded and connected to Ida than before, and her step had a new spring to it as she turned and twisted to see her larger bows, her new boots. Her fingers gripped the scarf that wrapped her head, shifting to the new jewelry that sat on her hair in place of her tiara. And even the gloves were gone now, replaced with a fancy bracelet.
"*********!" She called as she turned to find the guardian, laughing. "What did you do?"
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