Astrophyllite was usually very careful to stay outdoors on her patrols. Trespassing never seemed as bad when you did it outdoors - could you really call the air above someone's house their personal property? Well, yes, and you could call the roof that, too, but it just didn't seem so bad! Going inside of buildings just seemed so, well, you could never say you were just passing through a building, or you hadn't noticed you were heading, or you'd just wandered onto the property accidentally. Entering a building took purpose! It took verve!
But she'd be damned if that power signature wasn't just the strangest thing she'd felt in days. Zirconia had been stranger, but this had the same sort of disco ball texture in her mind, if only several orders of magnitude smaller. It was darker than the sorceress, though, tinged with chaos that verged on the fermented sweetness of corrupt senshi but not quite right.
As she wandered closer, she began to detect floral notes, sweet magnolia in full bloom. Astrophyllite bit her lip.
The signature was coming from inside the mall.
It was closed now, of course, all of the shops and restaurants shuttered for the night, the parking lot next to empty and illuminated only sparsely. She made a dash across the expanse of pavement, then stuck close to the wall until she found a service entrance. It was unlocked - probably the doing of a security guard or late-night stock clerk - and she hurried inside, hot on the tail of that mysterious signature - perhaps it was a member of that dark mirror court that Zirconia had mentioned?
Astrophyllite clutched her club to her chest with glee. Maybe they'd be interested in talking!
Verithe
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 8:10 pm
The wonderful thing about shopping malls is that there were mirrors everywhere. Particularly in the fashion stores, which is precisely where Sailor Celemorrow wanted to be, now that the security guards were taken care of.
Stepping out of a mirrored pillar next to a rack of high-end jeans, the black-clad senshi waved a flashlight through the darkness in search of his quarry. A local internet blogger he follows had been reporting on how this particular boutique was selling fashions made with real furs.
There.
Celemorrow set his flashlight on a nearby display rack and pulled a clinking, cylindrical object from his hat.
Then he made art. Ridiculously awful, neon orange art all over those dead animal pelts.
Would this be enough to get the point across? Certainly, he would have to keep the focus on the damaged furs. But was that enough? He paused mid-shake of the spray can. Something felt wrong. An aura, mildly familiar in that it contained notes similar to that of someone he had encountered before.
Someone he wanted dead.
Quickly looking around, Celemorrow flicked off his flashlight and posed with the mannequins in the storefront to watch for the person who bore the aura.
Astrophyllite walked carefully, trying to keep the heels of her sandals from clicking against the floor. It was weird to be indoors - she was definitely, definitely trespassing, but she was closing in on that strange signature. In fact, it was just around the corner!
She sped up, turning the bend in the hallway. Ahead of her stretched another line of shops, separated down the middle by a planter full of ferns. Water flowed somewhere in the distance, the fountain running at all hours even if the people did not. Astrophyllite looked ahead, studying a shopfront in front of her. There were several fashionable mannequins in the window, each of them terribly, terribly fashionable...
Except for that one, she thought, pausing. It wasn't dressed anything like the others. In fact - it wasn't a mannequin at all! It was a person, and, more than that, the source of the strange, disco-ball aura she sensed.
Frowning, Astrophyllite approached the store. The door was shut - and probably locked. How had he gotten in? She rapped on the window,trying to make eye-contact with the man. Why - why would he do something like that? People didn't just pretend to be mannequins for kicks, did they?
She narrowed her eyes. Was he hiding from her? Because if he was... he wasn't doing a very good job of it. She'd found him right away.
Verithe
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 11:39 am
As the power signature drew closer and its source revealed itself, Sailor Celemorrow's mind raced for a plan. He wasn't going to run from this. He wanted to stay and fight; put the hurt on the Negaverse - if he could manage it. Should he retreat back into the store and mirrorwalk to a more strategic location?
No wait, she's spotted him. It made sense that she would. In retrospect it was obvious that other people with auras could sense them as well.
A plan. A plan.....
What is she doing? Why is she tapping on the glass?
In one motion, the senshi of magnolias raised his arm to shelter his eyes and aimed his heel at the Negaverse officer's face, shattering the wall of glass between them.
Astrophyllite stared transfixed as the man began to move. He wouldn't - he wouldn't really break the glass, she thought, would he? That would be bad. That would be breaking someone else's property on purpose and it would be horrible for someone to have to clean up and he wouldn't, right? Right?!
And then, the glass shattered.
She threw her hands up to cover her face and shrieked, cringing backwards but not managing a leap. Bits of window clattered over the sleeves of her coat, not quite finding purchase in the thick weave. Why - why would someone do that? It just didn't make sense!
"That - that belonged to someone!" she exclaimed, slowly lowering her arms. Then it occurred to her: he didn't care. Astrophyllite called her club to hand. He was a senshi, she thought, taking stock of the situation as quickly as she could. He would have magic - magic like Kerberos's? If the floral scent was any indication, well, maybe. Senshi magic always seemed like a bit of a grab bag. But he was definitely going to use it on her.
All her training said to strike fast and strike first and strike hard. Astrophyllite swung her club as hard as she could at the senshi - people couldn't hurt you if you knocked them out first, right?
Verithe
Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:41 pm
Celemorrow knew that the window belonged to someone. That was half of the whole point in vandalizing this particular property. But right now there were more important matters to take care of and this was a battlefield. He didn't feel that now was the time to be concerning himself with minimizing collateral damage.
While he had training of his own, his reflexes were not nearly fast enough to miss the officer's blow entirely as the club hit his hand holding the spray paint, sending the can swirling across the mall floor, sending a shock of neon orange all over the place.
His hand was numb from the impact. That accursed weapon. He had to get some distance between himself and the Negaverse officer and that was exactly what his magic was for.
"Celemorrow Tepal Gale!"
Celemorrow Tepal Gale! - A sudden rush of magnolia tepals* burst from Sailor Celemorrow's silhouette and barrage a nearby (within two yards) target at gale-force speeds for no longer than ten seconds. Magnolia tepals are harder than most flower petals, so this stings. The most damage this attack can muster is a couple very small scratches. Even that is rare. The idea is to get an enemy to back off. The target must be in front of Sailor Celemorrow. *Tepals are the scientific term for what a Magnolia has instead of petals.
Astrophyllite shrieked again, dropping her club as she flung her hands up over her face. Senshi magic just wasn't fair! Her hands were all scratched up, and they stung like someone had gone and dumped lemon juice all over the cuts. Why did he attack me? she wondered miserably, forcing herself to stop cowering - another strike could very well follow the first, couldn't it?
She called her weapon back to hand and looked around for the senshi - he'd put some distance between them, and Astrophyllite was wary of following. Who knew if he could use his attack a second time? She was glad to have avoided being hit in the face with it - would she be so lucky again?
Astrophyllite decided not to follow him, because this had the potential of turning out very bad indeed. She was not good at fighting, and who knew - maybe they'd get in trouble for fighting. He wasn't a Negaverse corrupt senshi, but Chaos was Chaos, and kin more than order. What was he? One of those Dark Mirror senshi she'd heard mentioned over and over but never met?
Yes, she thought, Probably, and felt clever for figuring it out. Which still didn't explain why he'd attacked her!
"Why did you do that?!" Astrophyllite wailed, not pursuing the senshi. This was terrible!
