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 Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 2:16 pm
It had been a while since Red Cliff had done any serious patrolling. School had kept him busy, and so forth, and, truth be told, the thoughts of being involved in a war frightened him. He really wanted to help, and felt honor-bound to do so, ever since he had awakened, but more than a few bad run-ins with Chaos had eroded his self-confidence. The red-haired boy was in no shape to go helping anyone.
But he had forced himself to go out on a patrol tonight. Maybe he could start small. Ask for help from his allies, if he met any. Find a very small youma and beat it up.
Red Cliff had allies. He had gifts of power as a Page of Mars. If he saw fit to improve himself, he would gain more power, as well. And then he could do better at everything, too. So why not get out there and make a legitimate effort to fight to save the world for a change?
He kept to the shadows as he slunk through a park downtown, clutching his feather duster. It was not the weapon he would have wished for, but, well, it was what he had. And it served as a reminder that he was a knight, and he did have a role to play in all this.
It would all be okay. As long as nothing big and mean saw fit to beat the stuffing out of him tonight.
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 2:36 pm
"Hmm." An Order signature. Medea raised her eyes to the stars. She wrung dry her hair. Her arm dangled in its cast. Hopefully her arm would repair normally. Such a heavy rain. She cried a lot during the walk to the park. She thought she could cry out the pain, but alas, nothing. Those civilians wouldn't return to their homes or remember her as their savior. Quite the contrary. She represented their end. How weak, she felt. Nightmares came true after all. She rubbed her eyes. Better find the friend.
Funny how factions automatically gave one friends. All the better for defending against crazies like that agent...
Grass crunched.
Oh God. Oh God.
A shadow moved under the branches.
"Hello?" She approached. Her heart raced. "Is someone there...?"
What an awful night. She just wanted to Henshin down, curl up, eat chocolate and erase her mind of that terrible, terrible run.
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 3:03 pm
At the feeling of an Order energy signature nearby, Red Cliff relaxed slightly. The stranger's tone sounded off, though, when she spoke, and he stepped out towards one of the lights that illuminated the park's paths so she could see him. She should be able to tell that he was friendly, though, right? Even if he was a knight and not a senshi? The boy realized with some embarrassment that he was still not wholly sure how all that worked.
"Yes, just Red Cliff Page of Mars," he replied, and smiled awkwardly as he surveyed the bushes for the source of the voice. "Um, who are you?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 3:15 pm
Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Medea swallowed. He spoke. Her eyes widened. Her shoulders tensed. "M-Medea?" She gripped her cast. "You're a page? Like a knight, but--" Weaker? No, surely he wouldn't like the sound of that? Less experienced? No... "--not?"
She exhaled.
"I'm a Senshi." She studied the ground. Worms sunk into the earth. "The Senshi of Enchantment, actually." Leaves rustled. She couldn't meet his gaze. "I'm kind of having a bad night." Then a tear.
She wondered who would find the bodies.
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 3:56 pm
"Yeah, I guess like a knight but weaker," Red Cliff supplied himself, with a faint laugh and a self-depreciating smile. He knew it was the truth, at least.
He leaned, and took a few steps, then leaned the other way, trying to see exactly where she was hiding in the bushes. "Nice to meet you-" he began in response to her introduction, then stopped.
If Red Cliff had run into a youma, he would have known exactly what to do. Haul up and punch it. Or run away. Probably the second one, but he had two options he was sure of. But he was wholly not sure how to handle hurt feelings. Especially if they were senshi-related hurt feelings. The feather duster-toting page knew acutely that he had been a really bad Order agent for the last few months, and lack of experience aside, his inaction was really not something he was proud of. What could he say?
He caught sight of a sparkling cloth, and approached the bush that contained it, the crouched.
"Um. I'm not sure if I can help but." The Page of Mars fiddled with his useless weapon. "Is there anything I can do? Or do you want me to leave you alone? Or walk you home? Or ... whatever?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 4:22 pm
"Home." She felt so uneasy. She grasped the duster. "That sounds nice."
She wanted to fall against him and cry and tell him about the wires and the civilians and the officer and how she felt like the worst Senshi ever. The enemy saw her as plaything--not threatening enough to kill, but certainly worthy of torment and perhaps an experiment for how far they would test their ethics, but she was still very much a person with feelings and hurt and regard for human life. She cried. Sharpness wracked her chest.
"That's very kind of you to offer. I'm sorry I'm like this..." She laughed. "I'm such a mess, you know."
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 5:55 pm
He helped her up, looking distinctly surprised at the cast on her arm when he could see it. Red Cliff held his hands out as though ready to catch her if she started to fall. What was she doing out if she was hurt like this?
"I'll definitely walk you home, just tell me where to go." If something attacked them now, running was definitely not an option. The red-haired boy would not be able to live with himself if he abandoned her while she clearly needed help.
"No, no, it's fine," he stammered, keeping an eye on her as they started to walk, and allowing her to keep a hold on the feather duster if she needed to. "Um, do you want to talk about it?" She wasn't quite crying yet, at least.
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 6:13 pm
Red Cliff felt safe. Protective. She leaned against him after he helped her up. "I did a bad thing." She spoke softly--not at all like a murderer. She wasn't a murderer, right? "I want to tell you, but I'm scared that if I tell you, then you won't help me." She leaned forward. More tears. They fell from her straight into the earth. Nothing grew from saltwater.
"And you seem so nice for helping me." She rubbed her eyes. "I don't want to push you away, but it was so bad..."
She stared deep into his eyes. Red like Buddy's, but these weren't a killer's eyes. Not at all. These were full of hope. Innocent. Good. Not that he wasn't good but...
Releasing the duster, she clung to his arm.
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:24 pm
Awkwardly, he put an arm around her. Red Cliff did not exactly find her closeness disagreeable, but he was definitely not used to having someone he had known for roughly a minute in his personal space already. On the other hand, she had known him just as long, and here she was clinging to him and fighting tears.
Whatever had happened, whatever she had done, was really weighing on this poor girl.
Carefully, the red-haired boy started to walk, stiffly keeping his arm around her for comfort, and fear that she might fall. Or break. Or something. When Medea let go of his duster, he un-conjured it to keep both hands free to help her if necessary.
God, what was he supposed to tell her, though? To be totally honest, Red Cliff had only some idea what sort of 'bad things' could even happen or be done in this relatively fresh world of magic powers and fighting monsters at night. Did he even want to know?
"Oh, uh, if you don't want to say that's fine, sorry," he managed. The senshi was crying now. "Whenever you're ready to talk about it, that's fine. Um. Or we can talk about something else now?"
Like what? Asking a superheroine about her every-day identity was probably not appropriate, especially given that they had just met, and asking about her every-day senshi happenings was probably not going to help, so Red Cliff's usual routes of small talk were out of the question. He let the question hang for the moment, hoping that she would offer a topic if she wanted to while he fumbled for something random and pedestrian to discuss for distraction.
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:40 pm
He didn't want to talk about it. She nodded. Okay. That was fine. She would let the sorrow build deeply within her until she collapsed in bed. She smiled a terrible grin. Her red and wet eyes squinted and her mouth seemed pulled into a square--as if she couldn't decide whether to smile or frown. "Other things. Happy things." Dead people. Starseeds. Force-feeding. "Umm." Gasping for air. Tripped wires. Snapped cables. "Hmm." She closed her eyes. "Let's talk about you, Sir Knight."
He unconjured the feather duster. Fascinating.
"I didn't know you could do that." She wanted to ask if he could make her disappear as well--erase her like a stain. "What else can you do? Are you as magical as I am?"
She appreciated the arm around her. It kept her steady. Grounded. Safe.
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 8:29 pm
Red Cliff's brows drew together as he gave her another concerned look, but took her up on the conversation topic. Dreadfully uninteresting as it was.
"I can make it reappear if I need to," he replied. "And uh. Supposedly I can go to Mars? I haven't done that yet, though." The boy turned his red-eyes skyward to look for the pinpoint of light from the red planet, but of course it was too cloudy still to see the stars. "I guess I should, though," he murmured.
Then returning his attention to earth, Red Cliff added, "But no, really, right now I am not all that magical. Maybe someday. But in the meantime, all I have is my fists and feet and a feather duster." He sounded cheerful enough about it, at least in a mildly sheepish sort of way. Really he was just not confident enough that he could defend himself with those items if it really came down to it.
"I guess I'm also stronger and quicker like this than when I'm a plain old human nerd, though," The page added as an afterthought. "Like I can do the building-jumping thing, too."
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 8:48 pm
"Oh space." She smiled. "I've only been to space once. It was--" To a planet overtaken by plants and skeletons. The furniture suffered water damage. The glass dome on Thraen cracked and shattered. She felt on the verge of exhaustion the entire time. "--lovely."
She laughed.
"So it's just a feather duster?" She nudged. "What do you plan to do: Dust away my fears?" A smirk. "You know I tease, but yes, one day I'm sure you'll become a mighty, magical warrior of magic."
She shrugged. "I dunno Red Cliff, nerds are pretty cool~"
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Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 5:36 pm
"Not just a feather duster," he responded quickly, sounding almost a touch defensive. His tone softened and he went on, "It's my feather duster. I mean, it ... it feels important. To me." Wow, okay, that sounded really lame. Even if it was how the red-haired boy felt about his weapon. There was some sort of pride there, in that the duster was his weapon to master, though. Mars was supposed to be a god of warfare, so somehow, it seemed perfectly logical that Red Cliff was meant to be a paragon of duster warfare or something.
... Someday. Like everything else.
"I wish I could dust away fear," the boy went on, shoulders slumping slightly even as he continued to help support the distraught senshi. "I would definitely dust myself," he added sheepishly.
Space was a more comfortable subject for him, though, and it had caught Red Cliff's interest. "So for going to space, do we get like space suits somehow? Is it like another power-up after these weird outfits?" With his free hand, he grasped one of the red leather armor bits that hung at his waist.
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Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2013 10:38 pm
Medea's eyes grew wet. "Fear huh?" She smiled. Tears fell. She laughed. "Fear's a good thing to dust away. So is--" Another laugh. She rubbed her eyes. "--So is sorrow! Guilt!" She sniffed. Shock wore off. She wrapped her arms around Red Cliff and wept into his chest. "I'm sorry."
She pulled away.
"I did a bad thing." She sobbed. "And no! Silly Red Cliff." More tears. "I only went to one planet and it was broken and overcome with petrified plants." She sighed. "And everyone was dead."
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Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 8:01 pm
Red Cliff had no experience of his own in space to offer as reassurance. He wish he had something to tell her. Some promise he could make that he could be sure he could follow through on. Some Knightly knowledge that he could use to reassure her. But all he could do right now was wrap his arms around her and let her cry. And hoped his light armor did not pinch or anything.
Closing his red eyes, he tried not to feel too lame. He was the lucky one here for the moment, that he only had a messed up shoulder from the war. Whatever prices there were to pay for the war, he had gotten off easy. And, not for the first time, Red Cliff wondered why he had this power at all, if he was too lame for war.
A memory struck him abruptly then, from a dream months old. The chess piece pressed into his palm. The red-haired boy pulled one hand away from Medea to look into it, half-expecting to find something there, but his hand was empty, only the lingering memory of the feeling of some object having been pressed into it.
In the dream, it had been a queen, then a man with long red hair, playing chess in an alien park under strange colored lamps. Red Cliff could not remember his features exactly, but something about the memory of him now brought him a small feeling of comfort. As for what he could pass along to Medea in terms of comfort, though, he was not fully sure. Maybe if he just ... thought happy thoughts or something, and the girl sobbing into his armor would somehow absorb them.
He imagined himself a fortress, a safe refuge, with a chess table in one corner and walls of bookshelves surrounding. A place on a high cliff, removed from the ground, where he could survey the lands below from safety, and make choices about what path to take far from the reach of the enemy--
And, rather abruptly, he and Medea were there.
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