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 Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:08 pm
Banging sounded in the kitchen as Sid open and shut cupboards with impatient motions. She still hadn't figured out where everything was yet, so every time she was actually hungry enough to eat, she ended up spending ten minutes looking in all the wrong places for the utensils and things she needed. Twirling around in her boy cut undies and camisole that played peekaboo with her belly button ring, Sid pulled her phone closer with twitchy fingers and called up her at home playlist, turning the volume up as high as it would go before she turned back to the counter and the toaster she settled square in the middle of it. As Sidney fed bread into the appliance, the music beat easy and light through the kitchen, slowly lowering the set of her thin shoulders and encouraging her hips to swing as she rocked on bare heels. There was no mood that wasn't improved with a little music, and after last night, she needed all the soothing she could get. The visions of the train melting into viscera and pulsing pink walls still haunted her. She could practically smell the bile that had wafted up from it. Boney shoulders shuddered and Sid made a face as she pushed down the lever to set the toast cooking, cranking up the dial a little high in her impatience. None of it had been real, she really needed to get over it. It was just a bad batch, that was all, and she was going to have a word with someone about it, today preferably. She had a little of the old stuff left over, but not that much. Fingers drummed the counter, tapping out the beat before she swung away from the counter and sashayed to the table, looking to see if there was a paper she could rifle through while she waited for food. She fluffed her hair up with a hand, doing little to tame the mess it had become while she slept.
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Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:59 pm
The creaking of the old stairs leading down from the second floor signalled that Rob was awake, or it would have if it could have been heard over the music and racket coming from the kitchen. Why was Sid up so early? Had she actually gotten in early last night? He was still adjusting to having a housemate, and while Sid so far had been pretty low-maintenance as roomies go, it was still a bit new to him. He smelled the toast being made and his stomach rumbled as he hit the wooden floor of the hallway. A loose t-shirt hid the marks and bruises on his body from the last few nights' adventures -- he'd taken to wearing t-shirts when he got up ever since Sid had moved in, just so there weren't any questions or awkward conversations about his activities. Not that he wouldn't be above lying to her about what he did at night, he just didn't want to try to come up with a plausible lie first thing in the morning, or afternoon as the case may be. A hideously-patterned pair of boxers and dreadlocks that looked like they'd been in a windstorm completed the picture. Scrubbing his face with his hands, Rob's bare feet slapped against the tiled floor as he trudged into the kitchen. He stopped and observed Sid dancing around the kitchen with bleary eyes. "You're all bloody cheery this morning, aren't you?" he grumbled, voice still thick with sleep.
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Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 9:05 pm
Sid lifted her head at the rough voice, blinking owlishly for a moment before she broke out in a crooked grin. "Aw, did I wake you up, Boo boo?" She teased, shuffling to the counter to hit the volume on her phone and dampen the trancey music down to a reasonable level. "Sorry. Not cheery so much as ******** agitated, man." The short woman leaned on the counter, braced on her hands on the edge with chipped nails tapping out a rhythm. She couldn't seem to even stand still for very long before she was off again, idly opening and shutting cupboards with significantly more care this time. It'd be rude to go slamming things when the guy who was trying to fix up the place was right there ********, like... I had the weirdest ******** trip last night and I am still freaking out over it." She said as she pulled out a cup and let it thunk down on the counter. Sid talked as she went to grab orange juice out of the fridge and pour herself a half glass of it before she lifted it and sloshed it around at him, eyebrows up in question. "I'm ******** pissed about it, actually. That a*****e who sold me my last eighth must have given me Dust, because I started hallucinating hard core on the train to the club to do sound check. I didn't even make it there... I high tailed it back here as soon as I got off the damn thing and I swear I'm lucky as s**t I didn't get run over by a car or something along the way." Sid turned and brached her hands on the counter behind her, dragging herself up to sit on it with bare feet dangling before she picked up the juice to sip at it. It helped clear the taste of sleep out of her mouth and made her feel a little better as the sugars hit her stomach.
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Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 12:45 pm
Pulling up one of the mismatched kitchen chairs, Rob shook his head at the offer of orange juice and sat in the chair backward, arms resting on the back, watching Sid almost manically going through the cupboards. Something definitely had her rattled -- he hadn't seen her this restless and unsettled before. She was more frantic and nervous than she'd been when she first moved in. He didn't do much in the way of drugs -- his idea of a good high was getting drunk on beer and whiskey -- but he knew enough about them from friends and bandmates back in London to understand the kind of thing she was talking about. A bad trip was no fun at all. A bad trip on dust… was even worse. He'd seen that s**t take out a friend in the mentally messiest way; guy was never quite the same afterward. He sincerely hoped Sid wouldn't go the same way. "You okay then?" he asked, brown eyes studying his friend. "You want to talk about it? Or would you rather just forget it?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 8:53 pm
"I guess?" Sid said as she cradled the juice in her hands, her feet dangling a couple of feet above the floor. "I mean, I feel fine? There were, like, zero bad after effects, with is weird. I'm not even tired, like I just slept and I'm fine." The toast popped beside her and from it came a sharp smell as Sid pushed off from the counter and landed lightly, spinning to snatch the toast out. The reason for the smell was readily apparent: the toast was black on both sides from turning the toaster up too high. The asian girl seemed unconcerned with it and she banged a few more drawers until she found the one with the silverware. She set to scraping the toast over the sink, blackened bits raining down. "Its just bizarre. I didn't feel anything, before, during or after. I mean, usually you can sort of feel when its coming on. I felt fine... I got on the subway, like usual, packed in with all those other people, and everything seemed normal." She spun to wave the knife at him, her eyebrows lifting. "But then there was this cat." Sid shuffled to the fridge to dig in it, pulling out a jar of strawberry jam. The knife served double duty now as she began to slather the red goop on her doctored bread. "Weirdest ******** trip... Huge, white cat, sitting under the seats. It didn't even have a collar, just all these sparkly little jewels and a necklace. I remember wondering who had brought their cat on the subway and just let it run loose. I was sort of wondering, at that point what was going on, but then, because it looked like it wanted me to follow it and it felt kind of modern day Alice in Wonderland... And then everything took a turn and there was something outside of the train and the cat started shouting something at me and threw this stick pen with a weird topper." Toast sufficiently jammed, she stuffed it into her mouth and took a generous bite, chewing with every evidence of enjoyment. It might be burned, but she was used to that by now. Her cooking sucked, not like she had magically gotten better over night.
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 1:22 pm
The instant Sid mentioned the cat Rob felt his insides turn to ice and his heart leap up into his throat. He didn't even care any more about the mess in the sink or the smell of burnt toast that permeated the kitchen. "That is weird," he managed to say as she shuffled past him. "I never heard of anything like that happening. Who lets their cat loose on a subway car?" The lie was easy to tell because of the sheer disbelief already in his voice. Then she continued the description of her 'weird trip' and detailed almost the exact same thing that had happened to him: mysterious cat gets you to follow it, cat talks, cat throws a weird stick pen at you. What do you do when you find out your housemate is also a senshi? He turned in his seat and watched her. Sid… a senshi? He wondered now what she was senshi of, and if she had used her magic yet. From the sound of it, some kind of youma must have attacked the train and she was awakened to help deal with it, so it was quite likely she had indeed used her magic. Only one way to find out. "So what happened then? Did you pick up the pen thing?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:55 pm
Sidney shuddered as she frowned, glancing down at her sweet, burnt toast before she set it on the counter beside her and dusted crumbs from her hands.
"Ugh, that was when s**t got bad, Rob." She said, crossing her arms over her chest to tuck her hands against her ribs. "The whole train changed... It went pink, and soft, and wet... It smelled horrible, like after a bad night of drinking. The walls moved and the seats... ugh. It was liking being inside of a giant stomach. The cat went tearing off down the train and suddenly poofed up into this tall dude with hair down to his knees, but like... he still had ears and a tail. And I'm holding this pen like, what the ******** am I supposed to do with this? Suddenly everything went glowy and sparkly and I changed that time. Full on magical girl, Rob, outfit change and all."
Sid waved a hand about as she talked, agitation in every sweep of it and the way she shifted from one foot to the other.
"Whatever that s**t was, it was bad, because it went from talking animals to horror freak show right along to super hero bullshit. I bet everyone on the train was ******** staring at me like I was batshit insane... The cat guy started shouting and there was elevator music on the sound system and people were trying to attack the walls to stop the train. They wanted me to help but like, I'm not a super hero and I was high out of my mind, I was not going to go swinging my fists around at hallucinations. It got really confusing and when the train finally stopped, I got the ******** off of it and I came back here. Went the ******** to bed to sleep that s**t off." She shivered again as she made a face, rubbing her hands against her hips like she could scrub away the slime and horror of the trip. "I'm going to have nightmares about this, Rob. ********."
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 1:52 pm
"That sounds downright horrible," Rob nodded in agreement. Meanwhile his mind was spinning at the idea of Sid being a senshi and more importantly what he should do about it. He knew from Faust that you weren't supposed to talk about it with anyone -- but he and Aitana had talked about it, in civilian form no less, and nothing had happened to either of them. Maybe you just had to make sure no civilians were around when you did talk about it? And no Negaverse types, of course. But poor Sidney was already freaked out and freaking out still… Should he even bring the subject up with her now, here in the safety of the house? At some point he figured he'd have to. Maybe now was the time. "I wish I could make it better. But it sounds like you handled yourself pretty well under the circumstances, yeah?" He got up from his seat and went over to her, pulling her into his arms and giving her a reassuring hug. "Full-on magical girl, huh? Did the cat-bloke call you by a magical girl name then?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 6:14 pm
"******** right, it was..." Sid grumbled as Rob got up. She was a little startled to feel him grab her and tug her up against him, but it faded quickly into the comfort of being held. Her stiff body relaxed as she smiled crookedly, wrapping an arm around his waist to hug him back with a splay-fingered hand between his shoulder blades. Her cheek came to rest against his shoulder and she sighed, releasing tension with the sound. It wasn't real, it hadn't really happened. There was no monster train. No talking cat. No magic. "What was there to handle?" She laughed into his chest. "It was a bad trip. You just sort of have to hold on and hope you don't get ******** up." Sid frown then, her nose crinkling. "Name? Uh... They didn't call me 'Sid', I guess. It was..." Sidney bit her lip as she thought about it, trying to dredge up what it was the cat-man had shouted at her. "Oh! Eros. Kinda hilarious, huh? Of all the names I could come up with, my brain chooses Cupid." Sudden giggles took her then, making her shoulders shake as she snorted and chortled at the idea.
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 12:27 pm
Rob laughed too as Sid started giggling uncontrollably in his arms. "Eros," he snorted. "That's a good one. What are you the senshi of then, shooting people in the arse with arrows? Did your magical girl outfit include wings and a nappie?" His laughter became out of control too at the visual in his mind of Sid in a diaper with little tiny wings. "That's as silly a name as Puck. Scampering about quoting Shakespeare at everyone -- Lord, what fools these mortals be!" He fairly cackled at that. Of course he didn't scamper about quoting Shakespeare... Then he realized what he'd done: he'd given her his senshi name. He stopped laughing and released her, holding her at arms' length by the shoulders. "Sid." He had no idea how to go about telling her that the terrifying experience she'd been through was no bad drug trip. It was all too real.
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 1:25 pm
His response sent her into spasms of uncontrollable laughter and Sid clapped her hands to her face before burying it in his chest. "Oh my gooooood, Rob..." She moaned into him, struggling to calm the snorting laughter that mental image caused. Shooting people in the arse... Oh. My. God. "I did not have a nappie!" Sid dropped a hand to ball it up and punch him in the ribs as she giggled. "********. That would have been icing though. Puck would have been better than that, at least people took him seriously." She was still giggling as he put her at arms length, grinning lopsidedly at him. The laugh had been nice, and needed. It helped banish some of the lingering fears. As much as she joked and laughed, it has been a harrowing experience and she did not want to relive it, ever. "Rob." She mimicked him back, feeling pretty good. Until something he'd said poked at her. Her brows drew together as she pursed her lips, confused. "Senshi... That's what the cat guy called me, and the chick with the white leotard. How did you know that? I didn't even remember till you said it."
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 2:54 pm
Well, that was it. Rob had no choice in the matter now. Gently he steered Sid backwards toward the chair and sat her down in it. "Right. I hate to do this to you, Sid, I really do, especially after what you went through. But… Yeah. I know about senshi and all that s**t. Because it happened to me too. Talking cat, funny-looking pen thing, magic, and all of a sudden I'm Puck. And no, I don't go scampering about reciting Shakespeare," he managed with a slight quirking of the corner of his mouth. "And you don't scamper about in a nappie firing arrows into peoples' arses. I bet you do something else." Something else probably cooler than what he did, but whatever. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say to you is… That was no bad trip, love. That was real, what happened to you with the train and the cat-bloke. You're Eros. And there's monsters in this town, and it's our job to kill them." The expression on his face was dead serious, and just a little regretful.
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 4:02 pm
Okay, weird. Sid went willingly enough when Rob pushed her back, her knees meeting a chair and dropping her obediently into it. He looked so serious all of a sudden, after laughing with her and she honestly wasn't sure what to expect... And it certainly wasn't what came out of his mouth then. He started babbling about how everything she had seen was true and that he was one of those magical girls too, with a different name but the same everything else. Her eyebrows rose as she listened to him, growing more and more incredulous with every assertion. Finally, Sid laughed and pushed his hands off her shoulders, the sound just a little strained as she slipped out of the chair and back into her ********, Rob, I get it, ok? Sid has a bad trip and gets all squicked out over a ridiculous hallucination. Woo hoo, give her a little ribbing for being a dumb-a** and not checking her grass before she smoked it." Her grin wasn't as bright any more, but she kept it up like a shield, giving him a shove. "I know it wasn't real, I'm not stupid. Magic doesn't exist Rob. Cats don't talk and we're not magical girls. No worries, I've got it. I'll be more careful next time." She'd never pegged Rob for that sort of a joker, but it had been a long time. People changed and you had to learn them all over again. Sid just wouldn't be telling him about any more of her nightmares unless she was looking to be teased about them, that's all.
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 12:50 pm
Rob stepped back and hissed slightly as Sid shoved him on a painful spot. "I'm not joking, Sid. God knows I wish I was. Magic does exist. Those Negaverse arseholes on the tv have magic too, and they're trying to kill us and take over the city. And what about the ******** monsters, the youma? You don't think those aren't magic? I bet that train thing was a ******** youma." He really wished he didn't have to do this. Sid was upset and freaked out and now angry with him for supposedly making fun of her experience. Having her pissed off at him was the absolute last thing he wanted -- Sid was special to him, in a different way than Aitana was, but still very dear and precious to him. He didn't want to ruin that, but he didn't have any choice but to tell her the truth of what had happened to her. "Look, I wouldn't tease you about something as ******** serious as this. I promise you I wouldn't. I may be an arse at times and wind people up for no reason, but I'm not winding you up now." As he went on, he got increasingly angry at not being believed or even listened to. "What the ******** do you want me to do, Sid, go upstairs and get my stupid ******** pen and show you? Want me to ring up Faust and have him come over and talk to you? He's a cat by the way. What can I do to make you believe me?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 1:21 pm
"Look, it's cute that you want to stick to the story and all, nice dedication, but magic isn't real. Monsters aren't real. And it's really getting to not be funny any more." Sid said as she skirted around him to pace back to the counter and scoop up her orange juice. She swigged it in an attempt to calm her stomach, but it wasn't helping much. He sounded so sincere with his protests, but magic was fake. Made up. As impossible as going back in time or defying gravity by flapping your arms. There were just things in life like that, laws of the universe, that would be true no matter how someone tried to assure you they weren't. And it was just downright assinine of him to keep up the charade when it was so patently made up. "Okay, say you are serious and you're not teasing me: that just means you've got a few screws loose, Robin Attewood, because none of that is real! Despite what we used to pretend, there aren't and never were any fairies under the hedgerows in the park!" The glass thunked down hard when she slammed it back into the counter, her own temper starting to rise as he started to get angry about her disbelief. How dare he get mad at her for this bullshit? "Yes!" Sid burst out finally, slamming a hand on the counter before she stalked forward to stand up to him, stretched as tall as her 5'2" frame would let her in bare feet. She braced her hands on slim hips as she faced him down, her cheeks flushed with temper. "Show me your pen or some magic or something! But your not going to prove anything because it's not real!"
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