Welcome to Gaia! ::

Olivia sat outside on a park bench, reading a book by a combination of the dying sunlight and the lamplight. It was for school, of course, but reading outside was pleasurable no matter what the topic, and Olivia needed the open air. She’d spent a long time in the school, longer still tutoring lesser students, and longer even still behind a desk, doing other homework. Though she wasn’t walking, she was at least not within four walls, and it was refreshing. And productive. Exactly the way she would want it…

Well, obviously, not exactly. Perfection would be a hike, then a read on a tall rock face, her back against a tree, and a beautiful panorama unfolding just beyond the pages. But sitting on a park bench on a lovely Autumn evening would have to do.

A youma was also about, but it was not after civilian prey. No, it was after a very different kind of interloper… competition. It was a simple beast, but it understood energy. Some produced it, some ate it. Some that ate it were negaverse born, like it, and others… well… they weren’t. And it could sense one in its territory, and it decided, with a many, many, many fanged growl, that that was not right. It was not nega. It didn’t belong here. It could hunt somewhere else.

It approached Ubasti, growling and bristling what appeared to be quills. It hadn’t realized, yet, that it - like a yapping pomeranian going after a tiger - was horribly outmatched…

The youma growlfed and, a predictable and simple beast, pursued, it’s rows of fangs dripping as it raced along the ground. It was built for speed and fast attacks, but it was fragile… not that it understood that. It understood hunting. It understood killing. It understood energy. It understood territory. That was all that mattered to it.

Olivia looked up from her book, half rising at the urgency in the woman’s voice. They were… oddly dressed to say the least, not something Olivia would expect in this area, in the evening, at this time of year. It’s too early for halloween she thought, unbelieving. “What? Why should...?” The first few thoughts that ran through her head were ‘mentally unstable’ or ‘hard-core partier’... but none of those impressions fit with the appearance of the small, bony, slavering monster that came charging out of the deepening shadows. “What the hell is that?!” she exclaimed, jumping to her feet. Her posh way of speaking clashed with the utter shock in her voice…

Yeah… running was pretty pointless at this point. That thing - that horrifying thing whatever it possibly was - was fast. Olivia was atheletic, modestly, but there was no chance in hell she could outrun that thing. She ducked behind the bench, ignoring for the moment how undignified it was, but she couldn’t help peering through the slats at the oddly dressed woman… who punched the monster in the face… repeatedly. Olivia watched as it was utterly destroyed by the fierce woman, blinking her eyes as they suddenly went dry.

Finally, the monster vanished into an explosion of dust and shadowy mist. Was this a dream? She rubbed her dry eyes, only to reveal that things were exactly as they were - an oddly dressed woman, Olivia behind a bench… Slowly, Olivia stood. “What… in the…” she said, unbelieving.

And then the costumed woman - because it had to be a costume, didn’t it - began to berate her. Olivia set her jaw, stiffening instinctively at the statement. Did the costumed woman imply that she had been foolish? Absolutely not! Olivia reassured herself, standing up straight, the book lying half forgotten in the mud by her feet. “I don’t run” she said, “When there isn’t a point to doing so. Hiding, in this case…” she tried not to grind her teeth, “Was better and more protective.” Droplets of red caught her eye - something that didn’t fit with the costume. Olivia’s eyes widened.

“You’re hurt...” she said, managing to keep the shock out of her voice. After the monster had vanished, she had almost thought that maybe, perhaps, it was some sort of performance art act, bizzare and in the park at night for whatever reason.

Blood was not an act, and fake monster claws did not cause wounds that bled.

Thinking quickly, Olivia took out a portable first aid kid from her purse - small but useful enough, a must-have for any classy, intelligent, young woman on the go. She set her jaw against the trill of wariness and the instinct to stay away from the wierd lady, her sense of personal duty and honor winning out as she approached Ubati. “Here. Let me help you with your wound.”

“Senshi?” Olivia opened the kit and bent over the wound, assessing, before taking out purified water and antiseptic. Senshi… the word was familiar. Occasionally, such a thing was mentioned in the news, but Olivia paid little mind to urban legends. Is that what she had found? An urban legend? “No.” she said, a little curtly, “I am always prepared… And this is not nothing,” she scolded, “You’re not going to bleed to death, but this is a very bad gash.” the costumed senshi was lucky she wouldn’t need stitches! She peeled away the cloth around the wound and revealed it. She rinsed out the wound with water. “This will hurt.” she said, pouring in the antiseptic.

She supposed the hospital would have many questions about young ladies in outrageous costumes coming in with deep gashes. Somehow, Olivia didn’t think that this person - were they actually older than her? It was hard to tell - would not want to answer them. She dried off the wound and bandaged it up. Of course, she didn’t even grace the remark (reasonable though it was) with a statement - of course she knew what she was doing. Olivia always - always - knew what she was doing.

“There.” she said, finishing the bandage and looking disdainfully at the senshi outfit, stained and ripped, “Now you are less likely to be infected.” She cleaned her hands with water and antiseptic, and gave Ubasti the remainder of the purified water to drink. She put away the remaining components, nice and neatly, and put the medical kit back in her purse, making a mental note to restock it. “Now. Tell me.” She levelled an intense look at Ubasti, “What was that thing?”

Nothing hurt as much as what? What other beasts had hurt her before?

It appeared that Olivia was about to find out. She declined to comment that she was already seated, and any slightly wry remarks she might have made faded in the wake of actual explanation. So. The youma were monsters, and they were created by something else... some sort of evil organization... And Senshi fought the youma.

Olivia had seen that youma, and unless this had to do with goodness or beauty being deeper than the skin, it made sense that monsters = bad, pretty people fighting them = good. But then... “What does the Negaverse want?” it was a really bad name for anything, really. “And what are these two types of Senshi?”

And what had Olivia stumbled on to?

"That sounds very..." extreme. a** backwards. Terrifying. "Villainous, yes." Olivia supposed it was good that someone was fighting the... Negaverse. Seriously, it was a ridiculous name. Not nearly as ridiculous as White Moon Court or Dark Mirror Court. Or perhaps equally so. Olivia decided to err on the side of suspending her disbelief. The Monster - Youma - had not been fake, and thus these other things must be extant, but a few of the things that the woman - the Dark Mirror Senshi? - said raised other questions in their place. What did she mean by 'wake up'? Did that mean that people were ordinary one day and suddenly became these senshi? What did she mean by children? Was the friend she mentioned also a Senshi, a fighter? And, most importantly...

"I think this is a lot to take in." she said, a little snidely as she put away the first aid equipment. It also sounded like something right out of a children's cartoon - good and evil and monsters being vanquished and costumes. Olivia had never watched much of that sort of thing when she was younger, but now she wished she had. Things might have made a little more sense... or perhaps not. If this was real, then it was likely far more dire than any children's show. "How" she said, with complete sincerity, "May I assist?"

Well, she couldn't just walk away, could she?