Tomlin clung to the edge of a roof tile, back legs scrabbling for purchase on the guttering. The youma had caught him by surprise. He’d been wrapped up in the hazy puzzles of a string of memory-like dreams. There had been a base camp, an attack, heavy losses. Facts without context, emotions without triggers. There were images that had come to him as clearly as a photograph, but he had no sense of self inside them. If it was a photograph, all the faces had been cut out. It nagged at him, dragging his mind away at inconvenient moments. Which left him dashing along a rooftop with a youma on his tail.
It had appeared to be some kind of small and deformed bear-pig, low to the ground, so he’d headed upwards to escape, only to find the thing had opened membranous batlike wings that allowed it to glide across every gap the cat tried to put between them. Tomlin was rapidly losing ground.
The ginger guardian struggled over the gutter edge and ran out onto the tiles. Behind him, the youma sailed easily over the obstacle, landing behind him with a thump on its deceptively stumpy legs. Its jaw was wired with the same stretching membrane, giving him a full view of the double-row of teeth, and the absolute certainty that the thing could swallow him whole.
Up ahead, he could see the cathedral spires. That meant they were probably near the St Magdalena’s school now, maybe right on top of it. This had been his turf, once, when Callisto studied here, and the rooftops were steep but familiar. If he was extremely lucky, maybe he could find some help nearby. Though admittedly, so far it hadn’t been his day.
Redbud-Tree
Sorry for the delay. I hope this is okay - please let me know if anything doesn't work or needs editing?
Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 3:21 pm
It had been a passing fancy, really. Erika had only powered up for the sake of getting to the cathedral's roof, where she could sit in relative privacy and simply think for a while, to clear her mind and sort through all of the directions life had and continued to try taking her.
She hadn't even intended to stay powered up while she sat there - the added endurance was a bonus, maybe, but she knew she was something of a target by doing so. And yet... she had stayed powered, and maybe it was a good thing she had, because Sailor Callisto was quite sure you were not supposed to hear thumps from nearby roofs at this hour, let alone thumps accompanied by that unpleasant feeling that could only mean trouble
Youma. Heading this way, and fast.
Which... was a problem. Callisto's attack was oriented toward healing. She wasn't a fighter, and to make matters worse she hadn't even tried fighting in years. She could, theoretically at least, stay out of the fight headed right toward her but that wouldn't be the right thing to do and she knew it.
Especially so when it became clear the youma - and a particularly ugly one at that - was chasing something. Something that looked a lot like a cat...
Definitely no staying out of this now.
With a resigned little sigh, she got to her feet and waved at the youma, hoping to draw its attention away from the morsel of a cat and to a bigger target.
"Hey, ugly! Over here!"
LokisRose
Oh no your post was fine, I just got slow in answering... I hope mine's okay... And sorry for the delay on my end!
He felt the aura, like a mirage in the desert, shining for him up ahead, somewhere amid the steep slanting roofs. Familiar and extremely welcome, yet he was unsure if it was real, or if he’d conjured her with wishful thinking.
“Callisto?”
Tomlin adjusted his direction to head towards the senshi when she stood, skittering over the tiles, the youma gamely bounding behind him. It wasn’t until she called out to the youma that the cat realised what he was doing – leading it straight towards her. How stupid he was! He should be protecting her!
He changed paths, heading at right angles away from Callisto, aiming to circle around and hopefully end up at her side without the youma coming with him.
The youma glided to a halt on the rooftop at Callisto’s shout, wings flapping dumbo-like as it turned to try and get both the waving figure and the fleeing cat in its view, apparently unsure which target to eat first.
Redbud-Tree
I'm extremely sorry for taking so long to respond. sweatdrop
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 11:12 pm
Wait a moment.... Callisto was distracted from the youma heading straight toward her when she heard the cat call her name. Was that - it was! Somehow, the cat the youma was chasing wasn't just any cat, or even just any guardian cat - that was---
"Tomlin!"
More motivated than before, she took a step forward toward the creature, then hesitated. Tomlin changed course in front of her, which seemed to confuse the youma.... oh. Oh, what a clever cat.
"Thank you, Tomlin," the dark-haired senshi murmured. Reaching down by her feet, she tugged - and tugged hard on one of the tiles of the Cathedral's roof. With a grunt - augmented strength or not, she hadn't done anything like this in a very long time - and a stumble that almost knocked her onto her behind, Callisto pulled a heavy tile free and hefted it up.
Not wanting to waste this shot, she did her best to sight the target and then used what strength she had to hurl the tile at the youma, hoping that the heavy ceramics would at least damage it. Without waiting to see if it had hit, she reached down to the roof again, pulling up another tile to repeat the process.
Destroying that youma was far more important than a little destruction of property.
LokisRose
I think we can stop apologizing for being slow, because you're fine. c: That said if I made a mistake about the roof just let me know? It's late as I write this and I may have messed something up while tagging half-asleep.
Tomlin heard the break in the footsteps following him, and it made his fur stand on end – if it wasn’t following him, it might be heading for Callisto despite his efforts. He listened desperately for its next move, for the scrape of the youma’s claws on the rooftop, but didn’t dare slow down yet. He angled his path so he could still see Callisto out of the corner of his eye, just. It didn’t seem to be going after her either. It had stopped?
Something sailed overhead behind him, and the clatter of tile on tile sounded loud to his straining ears. The ginger cat paused at the spine of a steep roof section and looked back. He would have breathed a sigh of relief, if all of his breath wasn’t gone on running from the thing.
“That connected!” he cheered as the youma stumbled and roared in toothy distress, its membrane torn by the tile. Callisto was already prying away another weapon from the roof. If it charged before she got the tile free – the cat’s tail lashed with concern, but he held his position for now. He waited, ready to run back in as a distraction if needed, but he’d learned from past experiences, senshi didn’t appreciate it when he put himself in the path of their thrown attacks, even if he was confident he could dodge.
Redbud-Tree
((I… continue to be sorry in defiance of your request. I am so extremely sorry for making you wait so long. Again. sad ))
Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 7:42 pm
Yes! She'd managed to hit it! Callisto allowed herself a brief moment of pride at her little plan having worked, but there was no time to truly celebrate. The youma was still there, and Tomlin was still in danger. The second tile wasn't pulling free as easily as the first had, and by the time it slid out of place (or broke, Callisto wasn't bothering to see whether the tile came free clean or cracked), she wasn't expecting it to break and so stumbled back to land in a sprawled position on the roof.
Even so, she managed to fling it in the youma's general direction, hoping that if nothing else the throw would give her a chance to regain her footing.
Hopefully Tomlin had managed to get far enough away to no longer be at risk. If anything happened to him, she'd - well, she wasn't going to let herself consider that possibility.
LokisRose
((I think I outdid you on being slow this time! Should I be ashamed or proud?))
The cracked tile smashed loudly on the roof, close enough to the youma to shower it in sharp shards. It gave another mouth-stretching roar, but holes in the membrane of both mouth and wing were clearly visible where the tiles had caught it. That didn’t stop it pawing the ground and breaking into a clumsy, lop-sided charge in Callisto’s direction.
But Tomlin only saw Callisto stumble, and the cat began to run again as well, balancing at reckless speed along the roof spine until he reached a spot where he could slide straight down another steep tiled spire, tail over toes, to land beside his senshi. He regained his own balance with quick feline grace, but he could feel the dislodged tiles shift under his feet where she’d pulled them up.
The guardian pressed his nose against her ankle, nuzzling. “You okay?”
He moved to place himself between Callisto’s feet and the oncoming youma, puffed up, defensive and determined. Of course, she would be up again in seconds with another attack, but just in case she wasn’t. Just in case. It would have to go through him first.
