He was sore, everywhere, but he couldn’t sit and focus. Not on books, not on music, not on jewelry, not on language, not on sculpture. Nothing was calming his mind from racing. From the daylight battle-
They eat the souls of those they kill
He hadn’t been able to stand against the two blonde agents. Retreat instead of dying. It was right to retreat. It was right to live another day instead of throwing my life away to know purpose. Alive we slow them down. Alive we can try to end them again.
Only he wasn’t sure it was the right decision, even if he was sure that facing off against both of them at once, with his unerringly awful ability to fight , was a one way ticket to a pine box. It was like a bad medicine- he needed some other drink, something same-but-not to try to wash his proverbial mouth. He wasn’t going to be able to sleep anyway, not without a lot of Benadryl. Night was falling. he had another mystery to occupy his mind with anyway. He waited an hour, watching until the dark was complete- no OtherThraen yet.
So what is the difference? Quenton grabbed his coat and headed out, stealing to the shadows a few blocks away and henshined up- stepped out Thraen from the dark and into the street light. If you do not come to me as Quenton, maybe you do as Thraen?
He took to running, off Destiny University campus, towards the nearby expanses of malls, public lawns, and the various public large-scale sculptures there- some just the right height. If he could get his battered body to jump at the right time, he might be able to avoid if his double could use his magic as well. Then the super senshi of gardens waited in the light of a street. He waited looking out into the dark with eyes like flame.
He was not disappointed.
Thraen was caught from behind, much the way he’d caught the corrupted senshi he’d tried to garrote at the Convention. His double’s grey sash was pulled hard around his neck and Thraen dug his fingers at it, pushing his boots into the turf to force the ShadeSuper back, back, back, trying to get enough slack for air. They ran into a Veteran’s sculpture, their wooden boots clanging off the bronze and granite. I can’t use my magic if I can’t speak, I can’t use my hands if I do he’ll crush my throat with this thing.
Seconds were passing. He tried smashing the shade's foot with his own boots, let one hand go to elbow the other, but the thing’s determination was frightening. It's strength was equal to his own, no- better. It hadn’t battled a lieutenant just that day. Thraen’s world was starting to swim. How long can I hold my breath? Blood flow? Get. free.
But the sash pulled still tight, pulling his fingers against his own throat.
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 8:06 pm
Work had been keeping Howl quite occupied in the evenings lately. A string of evening shifts had prevented him from participating in the street fair themed around the Lunar Eclipse. It had even prevented him from patrolling as Nysa.
Of course, he had heard the news about the odd time of the Lunar Eclipse's shadows. And now that he had an evening off, he had decided to observe the scenario himself.
He had taken up a spot on the top of a building, looking up to the sky at the shaded moon.
It was odd, to know that he had legitimately been to the Moon before, and now he could not even see it thanks to this overly long eclipse.
After his idle gazing, Nysa could have gone home to reflect upon the eclipse further. However, something else had caught his attention.
It seemed that there was some sort of struggle going on at the ground level. Initially, from his starting point, it seemed like a relatively normal struggle one could observe from a senshi and an agent of the Negaverse. However, the odd thing about it was that he could sense the Super-level senshi, but the opponent was quite hard to sense.
There was a sense of caution in his movements as he approached, and it was only upon drawing closer that the full scenario could be taken in.
The Super Senshi was getting strangled by something that looked identical to him, but oddly lacking in color.
Any sense of hesitation seemed to vanish as he pulled his weapon from its sheath, swiping the sharp end against the offending sash.
In a stern tone, he mentioned "...I would like to think I am not intoxicated enough to be seeing double."
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Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 11:13 pm
Suddenly there was another aura near- strong but similar to Aventine's. A knight of some sort- but Thraen's vision had tunneled to a pinpoint of blurry night colour that he couldn't parse.
Then Air.
Thraen fell forward, a cascade of petals and bone-coloured hair, but kept rolling as soon as he hit. The Shade of himself swung claw-postured fingers out at its quarry, but only found air. Thraen's thoughts managed to be only so clear as needing to avoid boot or grip- Out of reach. Out of reach.
The shade considered the knight opposite it, expression evening from the desperation of before and pointed at the coloured version on the ground, "Murderer. Usurper."
Breathing, despite the freedom from the active choking, was surprisingly difficult. Thraen stopped rolling, a handful of feet between, frogging out, "Magic, jump away."
It was a breath before the shade did exactly as he himself would do faced with a near opponent who knew none the wiser and was still- It called the flowers, "Thraen Annual Planting!"
Sailor Scout Ability: Thraen Annual Planting How it Works - Thraen folds his hands together like prayer, the opens hands and they are full of seeds. He blows over them, dispersing the seeds. Hundreds of flowers spring up, growing and blooming magically. Their scent causes those who stand near them to fall asleep. Range - The patch of flowers that grows is a 10 ft. radius around Thraen Duration - The flowers bloom in the post he casts them. If those in the flower bed or near it do not get at least 10 ft. away from the flowers, they fall asleep like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz. The sleep lasts for 15 seconds. The flowers last for 20 seconds. Damage Summary - This is not a damage magic. No damage occurs from the spell itself, nor is any intended. If the writer of someone being affected wants their character to fall to their knees and then flop over and take no harm at all, that is up to them. If the writer of someone being affected by this wants their character to fall over mid-run and skid to a stop with a broken nose, that is up to them. But there is no damage effect in the spell itself. Weaknesses - If someone doesn't stay near them long enough, they don't fall asleep. If people hold their breath, wear a breathing mask, or cover their mouth and nose with wet cloth can avoid the scent as well. Once a person has fallen asleep in one flower bed, they cannot be affected by that bed again. Only a separate bed would affect them. This is an AoE (area of Effect) spell that effects allies as well as enemies.
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:14 pm
Irony.
Perhaps if he had not just fallen victim to it, the Knight would have found some sort of amusement in it.
He may have still had his weapon extended out towards the offending colorless attacker, however, his sights were upon the grey senshi, not the flowers soon enough blooming beneath his feet.
"...Interesting.... choice of words........"
Intoxication via flowers began to affect him, and soon he had staggered in place, his arm holding his weapon seeming to droop until he was practically holding himself up by the blade of his weapon.
"...I want...... an explanation..." With a rather sudden yawn, the knight's form slumped forward, seeming to fall asleep in a kneeling position.
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Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 10:48 pm
Thraen caught his breath as soon as he'd yelled to the knight, pushing up onto hands and knees as the stranger was dropping into something like a picture of a fallen knight, an effigy surrounded by blooms. Normally, Thraen would have been captivated by the sight, wanting to study it for sketches later. As it was he was stumbling up. Counting.
Fifteen seconds, if its the same. Don't breath. Don't risk breathing. No scent, no sleep. If we're both down, I'll kill me. So dizzy...
The Shade dove into him, knocking them both over and was flailing like a wildcat, tearing at his face and hauling on his hair like it was simultaneously trying to blind him and push his face down into the magic flowers and couldn't decide which first. Or trying to force him through pain to breath? Trying to get him quiet to deal with easily? And why not so, when the flowers were there- second ticking away. Thraen ignored the shade's attacking, wrapped his arms around his grey waist, and rocked their combined weight to started them both in a roll towards the near statue. If he could get free of the flowers, he could breath.
ShadeThraen had no trouble of breathing, giving no more words but growls as they were both rolled along. There was blood, red, painting the real scouts cheeks, but not enough. He wasn't dead yet. It pulled hard on the blonde hair to stop the roll and dug its nails hard against the flesh of his trapezius in imperfect understanding but some stolen knowledge searching for his carotid.
Thraen grabbed at the hand in his collar muscles, Five seconds-If I can make it long enough, I can either try bashing this thing's skull against the statue, or the Knight will wake and maybe that sword is just as sharp to skin as it is to magic silk. Please open your eyes....am I really wishing to be saved by a knight in shining armor?
Yes. Yes I am. I will happily trade being a damsel. That hot knight is more than welcome in this battle. Help is a good thing. I'd be dead already otherwise.
Zero...please wake up handsome knight...
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:04 pm
Sleep was a terrible thing, even in small forced increments.
Nysa's wits were not with him for the first few seconds he had managed to shake off the slumber, his eyes blinking slowly as his vision seemed to readjust to the light again. He attempted to remember what had happened moments before, a slight haze making the task slightly more difficult.
However, he turned his head and saw the color contrasted by the gray. Such an abstract thing was enough to seem to snap the knight back to the current task at hand.
He staggered back up to his feet, once more extending his weapon at the gray figure.
Under normal circumstances, he would never consider such tactics, but this evening seemed like an exception. With as much force as he could muster, he jabbed his sabre into the back of the odd doppelganger.
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Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:19 pm
With no voice but a cry, the thing's mouth opened, it spasmed, but weapon and clear shot was more than enough. The shade died. The real Thraen grimaced, pulling digits bodily from himself and hands-and-kneeing away and around it more towards the Knight.
The flowers were disappating, they were both safe. He could breath. He didn't feel less dizzy as he did, oxygen suddenly like a drug he'd been jonesing for. Enough so that it was difficult to speak connectedly, "Thank...you...you're...my hero."
Thraen clasped a hand over his bleeding neck, there wasn't really much to do for the gashes down his cheeks. "Know what it...was?"
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 5:38 pm
Once the odd opponent had been thoroughly vanquished, the knight pulled his weapon from its back. Normally the weapon wasn't used in such a rough manner, so he made certain to give it a look over. It seemed as if some black gunk had gotten on the usually pristine shell-blade. With a subtle tsk sound, he reached into an interior breast pocket and pulled out a handkerchief.
He began to clean the weapon, but then the senshi uttered an odd sense of gratitude. Glancing sideways as he continued to clean, Nysa noticed the crimson touching the lad's skin.
The Neptunian Knight kept his tone even as he mentioned "...I think you may be exaggerating my role in all this... but you are welcome." With a well practiced swivel to his wrist as he cleaned, he soon enough had cleaned up his weapon. With care, he put the weapon back in the sheath at his side.
Rather than offer him the dirty handkerchief, Nysa went into the opposite interior breast pocket and pulled out another cleaner one. "You may want to clean yourself up a bit, Mr. Senshi."
There was a pause to consider the question before he added "That is the first time I have ever seen one of those. I was hoping you would know the answer to that question."
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Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 5:30 pm
"Thraen. My name is Thraen. "
'Mr. Senshi' just sounds ridiculous. The knight seemed mostly unconcerned, wiping down his strange, but for all that Thraen really cared at the moment marvelous, weapon. There was no sense of anything else approaching directly, but then that thing hadn't really felt much form a distance. Thraen struggled up to his feet, holding his free hand up, "I can use my baldric, I think. I appreciate the offer, though."
"If I were to take a guess, the only thing that's been untoward was those rabbits at the Lunar Festival a few nights ago. I don't know how they connect, except that there was a distinct feeling of something having been drawn off when the little thing touched me. That copy has chased me before, but didn't show up when I wasn't ....in uniform. It was just as murderous before. I suspected that it might be able to use my magic. "
I can't say its 'nice' to know I was right. It isn't nice. Its awful. "Were you at the festival? I suppose the control factor would be seeing if other people have copies and whether they were touched by moon rabbits....otherwise it might be something completely different. They don't feel like the Negaverse or the Mirror feel. "
Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 6:25 pm
When the handkerchief was refused, the young man put his back into its proper spot. He kept an eye upon the newly introduced Thraen as he offered his idea about what had just happened, seeming to watch the way his body shifted throughout the explanation.
"...I clearly missed something in not being able to go to the Festival it would seem." The mention of rabbits seemed odd, but things were rarely deemed normal in Destiny City.
"...I had other obligations to attend to that evening, so I was unable to participate, Mr. Thraen."
Now that he had thoroughly primped himself after the tussle, the knight seemed to settle into a slightly more relaxed, yet poised position.
"So, please do explain what you mean when you mention 'rabbits'..."
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Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2013 4:01 pm
"I don't know that I'd say missing it was bad, if the result is one of these, " Thraen gestured vaguely in the direction where the shade had met its so recent end. "No..."
He furrowed his brow and shook his head slowly. He was still dizzy, and a deep, burning ache was starting in the neck wound as was expected- shoulder going stiff- but he had enough wherewithal that little random things still struct the random accumulation of frenetic studies that had guided his life thus far. "You're from England, aren't you?"
He sounds like he is. 4 years? Language patterns are established by four years of age? I...don't remember the statistic. Nevermind that. "Like the peerages of England, Scotland, Wales and the United Kingdom as a whole. No 'Mister', please. Thraen IS the title. As the Duke of Norfolk was sometimes called just 'Norfolk' or the Duke of Somerset just 'Somerset'. Thraen is a place, an asteroid. Presumably a part of the 'white moon court' under a 'queen'. So...just Thraen. Theoretically scouts should just be their called their places if not called by a given name and surname, or full ranked title like eternal so-and-so of such-and-such if referencing the sphere of their magic as part of that. If the Peerage of the Moon has any relation to the systems....Aquarius....said a thousand years...what was that..1013 AD ish...House of Wessex and Canute and Danish invasions? "
"That doesn't really matter, does it. " Thraen pulled his hand across his face, pressing finger pads against muscles to relieve stress. He supposed he hadn't earned the Knight's name, since it wasn't given in courtesy back but clarifications were inquired after in the stead. That's fine. The important thing is disseminating information and figuring out what is going on.
"I mean exactly that. 'Rabbits.' The eclipse culminated, and then from the corona there was a shimmer. But it wasn't an meteorite shower or anything so benign. It was funny little rabbits, like Japanese moon-rabbits, floating down. They tapped everyone with a paw and vanished just like that. Most of the crowd reasoned it away, as is instinct to return to a social norm rather than recognize fact. Others did see them though. I've not seen any since. Just that ...other me. There's nothing to connect the two, other than proximity of time and strangeness without checking with others or finding other clues, though. "
Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 10:14 am
He would have slid his answers in at the proper spots, but when the senshi continued to ramble forward, leaving little room for him to reply, Nysa awaited his turn to speak. It was rude to interrupt, even if the person was far too invested in explaining the history of titles.
Once there was a pause for him to speak, Nysa rather elegantly inserted himself into the conversation again. "I did spend much time of my youth in England, but I am by technicality an American."
Nysa was inclined to disagree with the senshi's stance on titles, but had no intention to call him out on it either. So rather, he moved onto the subject of rabbits. "It would seem that there is at least a correlation to the rabbits and the double you just encountered. Perhaps I am judging this too quickly, but it seems as if those who had not been at the festival are unaffected by the rabbits, and more importantly, the doubles. It seems like an odd sort of magic to also keep the moon shaded so long."
The news had been baffled by the length of the eclipse, and without any scientific reasoning to back up the occurrence, it had left many a news team to stumble about on television. However, those who were a part of the war in Destiny City were aware that magic existed and could be at work at any given moment.
"I will keep an eye out for any potential double of myself... just to be wary." However, the knight already doubted it would be necessary at this point.
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Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 1:26 pm
American-kinda English. The accent is hot, anyway. Thraen paused for a minute, worried if he'd lost his inner monologue and said that aloud, then took a deep breathe of relief when he was certain that no, no he'd kept that to thoughts only. That would make an already odd situation potentially pushed into the sublime. The guy already seemed a bit cold.
"It does, " the senshi of gardens raised his eyes at the still darkened moon. "I was patrolling earlier today in the daylight, and that thing didn't come after me then. Maybe they can't take sunlight or moonlight. "
"But really...Thank you. I shouldn't keep you. I don't expect its much of an offer, but if you need help I owe you one. However...we woudl even go about contacting each other if you ever wanted to call it in, I don't know?"
Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 1:49 pm
The tidbit about the sensitivity the doubles had towards light was noted in silence.
The logical question had a rather magical solution to it, and with a slight smile, Nysa bent forward for a proper gentleman's bow in introduction. "Someday, if you ever receive a parchment signed from Nysa, Knight of Neptune, you will want to take note of the request, Super Sailor Thraen."
It was not an in depth explanation of the abilities his signet had, but it was not as if a senshi truly needed the full workings of a ring that the knight wore upon his gloved finger.
Straightening up, he then confirmed "I will take my leave." With a 180 degree turn and a noticeable flourish of his gossamer cape, he began to walk away.
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