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 Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 10:58 am
Mintaka breathed in, breathed out. She had barely managed an escape from the HOARD of people roaming streets after the curfew. Blood trickled from her cheek where one managed to throw some sort of object at her. She had thought she was being careful tonight, but her flashy garb and light colors gave her away to easily. And the one she thought she was escorting to her refugee had turned out to be a trap. Foolish, she was such a fool sometimes.
Even as an eternal senshi, she could do nothing but run from the group of Senshi hunters, as they called themselves, in fear that attacking them would do more harm then good.
The only safe haven she knew of in the area was one belonging to a certain princess and luckily, she could feel that the woman was in her top form tonight, the aura almost stifling with all the others around. She pinpointed it and seeked it out, finding the Senshi of seagulls within moments.
"Chariklo..." Mintaka called out quietly, wiping the blood from her cheeks so the princess wouldn't see it. How funny that their roles almost seemed switched.
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 11:22 am
Chariklo wasn't fond of taking her Princess form within the city limits. Her aura was simply too hard to keep hidden there. But tonight, she was glad she'd broken her own rule when she felt an Order aura pelting her way. And not just any Order senshi, but one she knew very well.
Immediately powering down into her Eternal form, she leapt out to grab Mintaka by the arm and drag her into cover. Cover that, not so incidentally had one of Chariklo's decoy mirrors hidden away inside.
"C'mon, honey," she muttered. "We are getting the hell out of here. Keep tight hold of my hand now."
With that warning, she dove into the mirror and pulled Mintaka along behind. Doubtless the hunters would break the mirror when they found it. That was fine. Thankfully mirror travel was still restricted to the Dark Mirror Court.
But where to take Mintaka? Not to the Oasis. Not yet anyway. Home? That only worked if they powered down the second they hit. Mirror Space itself? She thought of Leto and flinched. YEah, no.
Welp, her own home it was!
"A'ight, honey, we're visiting my place. You need to power down the second we exit, okay? "
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 11:45 am
Thank god Chariklo was here. That was the first thought as she was grabbed. She was tired from running, tired in general so she didn't put up much of a fight. Mirror travel even through her a dizzy but that was okay too.
"Not letting go." Mintaka decided to say oh so eloquently. "Anything." She nodded. The minute they would break through the mirror into the home, Mintaka's form turned down and was replaced by Failyn. They wouldn't be able to trace order here with her form like this after all. And she would do her best to keep Chariklo's position safe from Negaverse.
The cut on her cheek remained as she took folded her hands over the cream and white layered dress (She dressed like a really fancy princess who knew).
"Ambush again. They are getting more organized and more ruthless." She laughed a little awkwardly. "Sorry, I don't mean to trouble you."
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 12:00 pm
As they exited, Chariklo powered down and only then let go of Failyn's hand. With a grunt, Arilee noticed the cut and seized Failyn's chin to appraise it.
"I am gonna clean that up," she muttered and immediately began to rifle through the small first aid kit that she kept beside the mirror. Anti-biotic cream, bandaids, alcohol, yes. Good.
As she gathered her supplies, she grunted again, this time with a grim sort of amusement.
"Of course it was an ambush. Idiots got no originality. Though I guess that's good for us. And it's no trouble. You know that."
Arilee gave Failyn's shoulder a squeeze. Friends were hard to come by these days. Particularly friends who had survived for any amount of time. Sitting beside the other girl Arilee began to clean the cut.
"Lucky for you, this is pretty shallow so no hospital visit for stitches. We'll just have to keep you out of sight until it heals up is all. No point in starting your own witch hunt, right?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 12:26 pm
She stuttered a bit at Arilee's rough grab and then smiled. "Do I have something on my face Princess?" She teased, only because she wasn't one for heavy moods. She could always count on the former heathen turned princess to cheer her up right? "It's not too bad, that's good. I hear ladies love scars." She teased again, mostly because the alarmed thought of having any sort of scar on her that was seen would worry her. She had a civilian image to keep up after all.
"No I suppose not. " She moved to take a seat so that Arilee wouldn't have to fuss while standing. "That's what I get though for blindly trusting someone. I thought she wanted out, but it had been a trap." She laced her hands together, sitting straight. "I was just taken by surprise by the sheer amount of them." She raised a brow as if Arilee would argue her terrible choice of being caught by surprise. She hated telling the woman that she didn't even put up a fight and only had used her cranes to escape.
"Oh..." she sighed, "It's really unbecoming of a lady to be referred to as a witch, of all things. People these days." She looked around, "Where is your wife today? The hospital?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 12:35 pm
"She is indeed," Arilee muttered as she worked. Within a few minutes the cut was cleaned, treated and had a Hello Kitty bandaid slapped on it. "And I wish you wouldn't call me Princess. It just sounds too Bizarro World." Sighing dramatically, the mohawked woman stood up and went to wash her hands. "Then next time, you check out your ******** sources, girl! Blind trust is going to get us all killed. And I really would rather not lose any more friends to this mess." The last was said in a low, almost choking sob as Arilee turned her back on Failyn, not wanting the other girl to see her crying.
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 12:45 pm
"Ow, Well, at least I know you aren't as gentle as ever like a princess should be." Mintaka rubbed the hello kitty bandaid that had been slapped on and watched the woman move to the sink.
"I'm sorry." She offered, "I've been having such good luck with getting people out of all kinds, I was cocky. And you're right, it would've...it would've ruined a lot of things for us all." But mostly, Fai knew that Arilee had lost people. Everyone had lost friends. Comrades, lovers. Fai's heart still ached knowing that Nysa was gone. She got up as soon as she heard the muffled sob and wrapped her arms around Arilee's shoulders.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry Arilee." She kept apologizing because she didn't know what else to say, she reached over the counter for a paper towel, breaking a piece off and offering it to the woman. "I'm trying to save as many others as I can that I forget about myself..." She sighed. "Magiore is worried that I might be pushing it too...He wishes that I would just leave the town I think.." Magiore being Aurostibite, a negaverse general. it was very, VERY limited information she told only people she trusted completely. Chariklo was one of them.
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 1:06 pm
Blindly accepting the paper towel, Arilee held it over her face and just let the sadness come pouring out. Failyn was a friend. A damned good one. And one of perhaps three people that Arilee ever allowed close enough to see her at her emotional worst. After a few moments, her sobs dwindled to shaking punctuated by random sniffles.
"I'm sorry," she gulped. "I should have better self control. I just miss them all so much."
Closing her bloodshot eyes, Arilee reached up and clasped one of her hands over Failyn's, standing there and reassuring herself that her friend was still there.
"Hell, I have never dealt well with loss. Not with my mom, not with Bianca or the others. There are days when I miss Sanskrit so much I could scream and then I feel ashamed for missing a dog as much as a person. Stupid, huh?"
Patting Failyn's arm, Arilee gently pushed herself away from the girl to turn on the faucet and let a stream of cold water run over her hands before splashing it over her face. For a heart-wrenching moment she wished that Ava was home. Ava always understood and helped to banish the demons that haunted her partner.
"Magiore is right. You do push it, why not hide out at the Oasis and help out there? Get yourself out of the Negaverse's crosshairs for a while?"
Taking a deep breath, the tall blonde straightened up and turned her head to give Failyn an expectant look. Clearly she was ready to ship the other girl out by force if she thought it would work.
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 1:42 pm
Failyn might've chuckled at the fact that Arilee was trying to hide her face if it wasn't because Arilee was trying to hide it in the first place. Death was hard. Death was the hardest because there was no closure, no matter what others said.
She rubbed Ariliee's back with gentle touches, soothing the older woman as much as she could and hating the fact that because of her almost being caughten had made the woman cry. Arilee meant a world to her, and to see her saddened, made her shamed. She should've thought of her friend more.
"Nonsense." Failyn said with a scolding gentle tone of her own, "Pets are not pets but family members as well. Death is not easy." She agreed, and it was just another part of wanting to get people out as much as she could. Peace was the only way to ensure that death only came after a happy long life. War was not.
She moved away to give Arilee space to compose herself, because she understood that need to get it out and come back. They were all fighting for something, and it was all heartbreaking and terrifying and dangerous.
She pulled at a curl and shook her head. "I can't. There is so many of them Arilee." She crossed her arms and looked away, "There's so many that don't want to fight or being hunted and just want somewhere safe to go. I was born a senshi for a reason.." She sighed, leaning against the counter and looking up at the ceiling, "What use is having the title and not doing everything I can with it." She closed her eyes, so she didn't have to see Arilee's look, because if she faltered now, then she would falter in her endeavor all together. "You taught me to be stubborn remember? It's not like I picked that up all by myself." She smiled softly at Arilee, reminding the woman that she was still Fai/Mintaka's mentor in things. "I can't leave either...because Magiore is here." She fumbled. "I can't leave him here by himself..."
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 2:10 pm
With a soft sigh, Arilee turned around and leaned back against the sink, one hand gripping the cool tiles while the other ran ceaselessly through her white-blonde hair. Really, she hadn't expected any other answer, but it still hurt.
"Honey, you were a stubborn little brat long before I met you. You just hid it better," Arilee replied with a tiny quirk of her lips. "Does Magiore want out?"
She understood not wanting to leave anyone behind. But this was something that needed to be out in the open. If Failyn was continuing to risk her life in order to stay with someone happy to remain in the Negaverse, that was a Problem.
Pushing herself erect, she jerked her head towards the door.
"Let's go into the kitchen for this. Tea's up in the usual cupboard if you want to pick what we'll be drinking tonight.
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 7:14 pm
"Nonsense, I was the epitome of a demure lady. Quiet, gentle and willing to work." She looked away again. "I haven't asked him." She opened the cupboard that Arilee mentioned, pulling out her favorite. A simple peppermint tea.
She loved that Arilee knew that tea would calm her, or that it was the drink of choice for herself. She set the kettle to boil, following Arilee out and sighing.
"I can't ask him...He's been there so long, and they have a good system if not for the eradication of my kind." Her kind being the white court. "But you know my feelings, and...and I can't ask Magiore to do something he isn't ready to do."
She crossed her arms.
"It's like asking him to purify and lose himself or me corrupting and joining the mass." Neither of the two options were...well options.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:02 am
Listening and nodding where it seemed appropriate to do so, Arilee took a seat at the small table in the kitchen and set her eyes hungrily on the wall across from her. Pictures of Ava and Ali, the kids, Lance and Adalinde smiled back. This argument between her and Failyn was old and well-worn. Each knew the other's response and found comfort in the familiarity.
She doubted Failyn would begrudge her spacing out for a few minutes to stare at pictures of her absent family.
"Well, I guess that we just have to hope he'll feel ready sooner rather than later then," she said wearily. Sighing again, she leaned forward until her forehead was resting on the tabletop.
"What're we going to do, Failyn? she asked sadly. "It feels like our time and options are running out."
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 2:01 pm
Failyn relaxed, knowing that Arilee wouldn't push or shove at her. They had mutual respect for each other, even if sometimes they didn't see eye to eye. Fai's mission at the most point was not to become another loss in the other woman's world. They only were few now. Not a lot.
She sipped her tea thoughtfully, staring at the photo's too. Unlike Arilee, the only loss Mintaka had was her grandparents. They had been close but not so close that she hadn't gotten over it in the years. And they had gone peacefully, in their sleep together.
Her mom and dad were still around, and laying low for her sake. Upright civilans with no ties to her besides paying for the small condo she used for looks.
"Maybe." She sipped again. Her hand came over to play with Arilee's hair on the table and she sighed as well.
"I...I'm not sure." She pulled her hand back. "If I was stronger, if my planet was stable, if I could hold you guys there happily I would." She wanted to take them to her homeworld, and if they worked, it could be the town/kingdom she saw in her distant memories.
Like with Aurostibite, she couldn't help the brutal honest. "I'm going to die here." She set her cup down. "I can feel it, and I can feel it soon. I'm not going to outlast the war. My only option is to keep moving people to be happy and safe till I no longer can do it." She smiled sadly, "Those are the only options I see for me."
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 6:21 am
Keeping her forehead against the cool surface of the table, Arilee let a few more tears leak from her eyes. It wasn't often that she gave in to depression, but she figured that at this point, she was goddamn well allowed to have a Moment or two.
"I know you'd take us along and I appreciate the thought, honey."
Tipping her head up slightly, she rested her chin on her crossed forearms and arched an eyebrow at her friend's fatalism.
"Baby," she said in a soft voice, "we are all going to die here unless we can figure out some Eleventh Hour miracle bullshit. The trick is picking the place to make your stand and making sure that they are paying through the ******** nose in order to take you down."
Sure, Arilee would like to hope that she'd grow old in peace with her family. But she saw it as a pleasant pipe dream at this point. And she knew that when her day came, she was going to do her best to make sure that when she went down it would be with a ******** bang.
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 7:09 pm
"It's not fair." Mintaka sighed, "I'm this super cool senshi born with a whole other world and it's not even livable for me to take people too, to save everyone that I love the most." She set her cup down and pushed it away, sulking a little.
"What about Mirrorspace? You and Ava and the twins could go through there right?" she hesitated, "Take them away if you had too?" If it was an option, she would convince Arilee that was the way to go to get them the hell out of here before the world imploded on itself.
That last hour, she was sure most of the senshi's would kamikaze back into the cauldron and wait for order to return.
"Chaos is spreading further..." She sighed, "Even Safe Haven is feeling it, with the negaverse broadening their searches."
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