It's not even Thanksgiving yet was the collective grumble of the student body, staff, and faculty alike, but she at least appreciated the extra lighting around to shoo away the early night.
People still milled about campus, with classes still being held until relatively late in the evening, and she joined the steps of those en route to the car parks and bus stops to head home. Instead of hopping into a car or swiping her card to pay for a crowded ride, she veered off until she was alone and--if the shade and foliage were of any indication--out of sight. Keeping her heavy jacket and equally heavy backpack on, she removed a dark military-style button-up cloak and a mini travel wallet, tossing them on the ground before pulling out a pen. A murmur and flash of light later, Cassiopeia quickly scrambled into the cloak and shoved the wallet into one of the various pockets lining the inside.
It felt weird to hide her uniform--and really, with all the flashing and twinkling lights around, she rather felt she fit in--but the cold didn't agree with her… flashy attire.
Caught up in her dislike of the cold, it'd taken her a few moments to realize there was a little warning bell going off on her mental radar. Cocking her multi-colored head, she blinked owlishly towards the rest of the campus. A Chaos aura but… not… Negaverse..? She couldn't recall ever coming across such a strange sensation before, and it didn't take long for her increased speed--and jumping capabilities--to get her closer to the source. Her steps were hesitant, bouncing around a bit as she tried to catch a glimpse well before actually running into whatever, or whomever, was throwing off the aura. Chaos was Chaos, she figured, but there was this odd other feeling about it that made her far more curious than properly on guard.
Curiosity killed the cat…
"Hello? Hi?" The black, blue, and purple of the uniform she finally caught sight of amused her, at least in the sense of standing there in a sort of brighter rendition of the color scheme. Ok not quite. Missing the teal. But still, let her have her fun. "Sorry, not interrupting, am I?" Like whatever trouble Chaos auras usually were accompanied by, if that expectation still applied here. She kept a distance, dark starry heels clicking softly against the ground with each uneasy shift of her weight. Didn't stop her upper body from leaning in a bit though, that damned curiosity wanting her to inch forward despite self-preservation against the unknown.
Over time, Morpheus learned which areas spoke to ease of draining, to a quick quota fill so he could return home feeling proud of himself. Even now, it felt like a game to him - but a game played with real lives, real people. He knew the places to go now - movie theaters, if he watched for popular flicks and kept track of their time; campuses, if he waited around until the top of the hour; bars, if he read the business signs that posted their closing time. Wherever crowds came to be, people grew less watchful. They placed credence in the phrase 'safety in numbers'. They thought less and less of the outsider tagalong at the back of the group. It must've been normal, he figured, when his third attempt to drain crowds went off without a hitch.
Now, he watched a small campus protest accruing at the corner of the courtyard. They aggregated around one of the administrative buildings with signs protesting a tuition hike. Morpheus frowned while he allowed his wraith to fade through the crowd, mitigating boisterous shouts into tired calls. Slowly it thickened with new energy.
Glad I don't go to school here, Morpheus confirmed to himself. Arms crossed over his chest while he watched from his perch on the low wall. One foot remained flush against the brick while the other flatted on the grass. Tuition hike… I wonder how much they're paying? Who would even pay to go to school, anyway? That sounds like a dumb idea. Just get a job instead, and no one goes into debt that way. And why don't they just stop going? Not like you learn anything important here. That's what you get on the str-
A voice called behind him, and Morpheus visibly jumped. He got up abruptly and turned to face the source of the disturbance. Some girl in a slutty costume just decided to stop by and give him a hearty hello? "Uh, hi?" Morpheus narrowed his gaze at her. She felt like she had better places to be than messing with his energy draining operation. But, she didn't sound like she was about to stomp his face for taking a little from the crowd. "I guess you're not. Interrupting, I mean." Morpheus scratched the back of his head. What was he supposed to say to these people?
"You go to school here or something?" If he kept her talking, she shouldn't notice the wraith slowly growing palpable.
She'd have joined in the protest if she wasn't already kinda behind on her patrols for the uh… month. Year if she was being honest with herself. Going into nearly a hundred thousand--more than, if she went for her Master's...--in debt was hardly a reasonable price for an education but such were the requirements of the age...
Unbeknownst to her, she should count herself lucky she wasn't part of yet another public gathering acting as a neon target sign.
Tugging her cloak further around her, she had to bite down on the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing, or even smiling, at the visible shock of her um. Target? Guy sounded about as unsure of the conversation as she was. Well that helped to ease a tiny nugget of her unease.
It at least got her to actually give in a smidgen more to that curiosity, taking a couple tiny steps closer and peering at bit more at his uniform. She wasn't sure what she was expecting. A blinking icon over his head going, This Faction, Dumbass or something? Maybe. She almost expected to find in everyone's uniforms, somewhere, a tag saying Property of [X Side]. Just to actually make things… easier? Was that too much to ask?
What kept her still at a good distance though was the fact the guy didn't look super thrilled to chat with her. Considering he was just hanging around, she wondered if she did interrupt something--if not just maybe a thinking session?
"Yeah, I do," she answered automatically to his question. Had to keep herself from supplying further info, like her major, year, and so on. Knew the glamour of the magic would keep him from finding out who she was--and was why she barely tried to eye him to figure out if maybe he was someone she recognized around the campus--but give away too much? It narrowed the options significantly.
"What about you?" Chatting wasn't a horrible thing… right? Offering a tentative smile, she added, "Sailor Cassopeia. You're… obviously not White Moon. What sort of senshi are you? I mean, you are one, right? You… kinda feel like one, but not..?" She wasn't too proud to ever keep herself from asking questions when she didn't know the answers. Might look like a fool, but hey. If it got her the information, then what did she care? It'd at least keep her from repeating her mistakes, or worse: look like an even bigger idiot for acting like she knew it all already.
Really, Morpheus didn't know what he was expecting, but a 'yes' wasn't it. "Uh, cool." He met a few senshi, yet they never seemed terribly invested in the areas they patrolled. Looking back, it made sense if they did, or they just lied about it to him. Not everyone adopted the idea of going off to ******** around in places one would never approach normally. "You like it here?" If he could keep her talking about her education prospects, perhaps she wouldn't stare too closely at the gaggle behind him. By now, his wraith had to be nearing its limit on energy.
And surely, it was - the creature darted about though the most vehement protesters, ever careful of remaining out of bounds from their attention, and grew close to completely tangible. Picket signs were held high and eyes directed toward the top of the building where the dean's office stood, so the wraith kept low with their knees and ankles.
Finally the creature darted back toward him, ever in a rush, and reached his side with that same life-or-death urgency. Morpheus looked down at it, seemingly embarrassed. He offered a mirror shard for its retreat.
Hopefully the damned thing would go back in before she decided to take care of it. "I don't actually uh, go to school here, no. I'm not a fan of the Establishment. s**t's whack. I mean, you should see the numbers on their signs." Or, she probably already knew. "People are going to put all that debt on themselves so they can work at Starbucks for two dollars more. It's surreal." He wasn't sure if he used the word correctly, but it sounded smart, and he was definitely not going to impress some enemy just because she sported a revealing shirt nope, not part of his plans, wouldn't do it, not going to try -
"My court calls me Morpheus. You know, after that dude." He had no idea who Morpheus was, nor was he terribly interested. If the name corresponded to a rapper, however… "And by court, I mean the Dark Mirror Court. We're not White Moon. So I guess uh, yeah, we're both senshi. If senshi means magic-casting motherf- uh, people. Yeah. Senshi." Now what gang signs corresponded to which Court? Were there gang signs? There better be gang signs. He wanted to case a joint flashing gang signs before they busted people's s**t.
She lifted a brow at the… not necessarily lackluster response, per say, but well… For a lack of better terms. Still, she gave a simple shrug at his continuation of the conversation. "The professors are mostly nice, and are actually qualified to teach students based on their achievements in the fields, so that's a plus. It costs too much, but hopefully the internships and fieldwork offered by the university to students will help make up for it by giving people a good chance at networking and finding jobs in their fields post graduation." It was likely more than what the question really needed, in terms of an answer, but it was a common question--and that was her fallback answer.
She missed the movement by the protestors' feet, mostly because the movement from the signs were more what caught her eye if she glanced that way. But when something moved away from the group, towards them, Cassiopeia looked up and felt her eyes go wide. It looked like… well, what the classical representations showed of ghosts and phantoms. And it went… right to him? "W-what is that?"
It wasn't a youma. It wasn't giving off any warning bells to her and she was baffled by this. And… more intrigued than she likely should be, remotely, but that aside. "Where did it come from? What did it just do?" She looked between the creature--was he offering it a mirror shard?--and the group, only then noticing how some of the signs weren't being raised as high as before. People looked tired, and not the sort of usual exhaustion she'd expect from lugging around signs and doing the usual protest stuff. But they… they weren't hurt, at least not that she could see. No one was crying, no one was screaming or clutching at injuries.
The hell..?
But he answered her first question in turn, and she blinked a bit, mouth open soundlessly for a moment before she let out a breath in disbelief at this extremely odd situation. "A-ah um… ah… ok for the record, working at a coffee shop is horrible and a shitton more people need to work customer service jobs to learn any proper manners," was her… sort of unrelated commentary, a bit of color going to her cheeks and huff in her voice from a wave of flustered nerves. Ok so he did mention Starbucks, and hey. She felt the need to defend college students. Herself included… "It is surreal at times. Some jobs only take people with the piece of paper, so if anyone wants a position that has that ridiculous requirement--seeing as most college grads don't have the actual job experience necessary… well they've got to go into debt to first even qualify to apply to such positions. In the lame hope of getting enough to pay it all back. It's a horrific system that desperately needs to change." She paused and snorted. "Preferably by jobs opening more avenues for high schoolers and those already out of school to participate in fieldwork and on the job trainings to get the same experience and knowledge-- and I am ranting and that's… wow ok I'll stop now. Sorry."
It was a sensitive subject, ok? And he was very accurate in how wack the system was, but considering it was her only shot at getting the sort of work she wanted…
Right. Focus. Focus.
When he gave his name, she titled her head a bit. "You mean like the guy from The Matrix? Or um… oh what was it…" She snapped her fingers a couple times, humming slightly. "Not… King Morpheus from Little Nemo... oh! That was the name Dream used in The Sandman! Pretty sure that's the name for a god of dreams?" Amber eyes stared back at him expectantly, after all. She'd jumped right into research when she awoken. It was um… probably rather sad how much she expected the same of others.
He did get her to laugh a bit though at cutting off his swearing. "What's the Dark Mirror Court..? I haven't heard of that before now." At least, she didn't think she had..? She was asking a horrible amount of questions though, now wasn't she? Oops. But hey, if he was willing to put up with it...
His new conversation partner sounded distressed by the mirror wraith, so he urged it inside as quickly as he could. Once it found its way back to another dimension, he pocketed the shard under his robe. "Don't worry about it," came his hastened response.
Luckily she smoothed herself out enough to carry on the conversation - and damn did she have a lot to say. Morpheus listened for a while, as best he could really, as she went on and on about how the university provided good opportunities but was too expensive (and he wondered if she would've joined the protesters he just drained), and how the system desperately needed an overhaul, and how certain jobs only hired diploma-wielding sorts but only the ones who had job experience but the ones with just the diploma had to go work for Starbucks and he got lost somewhere in between, he was pretty sure, because she got to the end and his mouth hung open and the only intelligible word he could utter was "Huh." He wasn't sure how to respond to that, and his usual comments of '******** the system' and 'stick it to the man who keeps us down' sounded more than a little paltry next to her lengthy explanations. So he was a little out of his league.
Better yet, he needn't supply more, because she shut herself down and moved onto the topic of his name instead. Some of the recollections she provided sounded less badass than the others, but he liked Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix, and god of dreams was a cool title. "Yeah," he conceded with a hearty nod, "God of Dreams. Just like that." It fit with the strange magics he managed, regardless - people went wandering around staring at s**t like they were high if he used his dust on them. Why that came to be, he didn't know; he didn't exactly stick around to ask about it. "Sounds pretty badass, right?" He pressed knuckles to his hips and waited for a compliment.
If one came.
"But uh, yeah about the Dark Mirror Court… I guess it's just a court of senshi that have to do a bit differently from the rest. We've got this cool place called Mirrorspace, and we can go through mirrors like they're doors. We also have to collect energy from people, though, using these wraiths. That thing you saw earlier? That's a wraith. They just go through people and build up a little bit more energy until they have enough, and then they go back to these mirror shards we get. Then that's that, I turn it in and someone gives me another. I guess it keeps us going. You don't do shi- er, stuff like that?"
Ok the way he waved aside the weird a** creature irked her, but she let it slip aside for the moment when her impromptu rant came in. The color darkened on her skin and continued down her neck, onto her shoulders when he um… didn't quite respond to her...enthusiastic words. He asked, she responded, ok?
Really, she was kinda grateful for the other topic to jump to. It was more effective grounds, and she still hadn't forgotten about that wacky creature. When he nodded to her question if Morpheus was, indeed, the name of a god of dreams--though she couldn't remember if it was Roman or Greek… had to be one of them…--she figured it was on the basis of doing research on the subject himself, and grinned. "It is badass. Is that what your sphere is, Dreams? Um, like your power?" Her mind swam at the possibilities a sphere like that might have for magic. Even if her smile took on an edge of amusement at his postering. Well, she wasn't going to fault him for it. Everyone deserved an ego boost now and then right?
But she listened attentively as he began to explain the Dark Mirror Court--really the concept alone mystified her, but the powers he listed off made her eyes go wide. They had another place? Could walk through mirrors? She had to force herself to not jump on asking about those topics. More important one first.
"Those wraiths… they only take energy… right? And um… if it wasn't a group of people, but just one… how much energy do they take?" Her voice was wary, and her expression a hair sceptical. The concept was cool, and good lord was she dying to ask more questions about all the stuff he could do--chiefly, can I see?
But safety of people first. Then her curiosity could be satisfied.
"I mean… you just tire people out? You're not ripping out starseeds or anything like that, like the Negaverse..?" Slowly, she shook her head. "No, we don't do anything like that. I can travel to my… um, my world, I guess you can say. My constellation? Cassiopeia. It's an actual planet, that I can bring myself to."
"I dunno what my power is, actually. Maybe it's dreams. All I know is when I use it, people just kinda look around for a while. Nothing happens." So far as he could tell, anyway. He omitted any admittance of running away after using it. "So, you have powers too, right? What are yours like?" Hopefully more obvious, or useful. Why couldn't he just summon up a couple AK-47s and go to town on their opponents? There wouldn't be need for all this magic and secrecy and darting through mirrors if one could mow down the competition like that.
"But the wraiths, yeah, they just take energy." Morpheus looked over his shoulder at the crowd. As time wore on, some of the more exhausted students departed with their signs. The rest remained bolstered, and some of the later crowd drifted by and joined in. Idly Morpheus wondered if the dean would be spending the night in that office. "I've never been drained by one so I don't know how much they take, but I've only ever seen people go by kinda tired like that." He pointed to one of the departing students, who looked healthy enough to backtrack to her dorm. "I've also just stuck to crowds. I heard people can attack the wraiths and ruin all your progress, and in crowds, people aren't really gonna notice anything. It's a good idea, I think." He looked back at Cassiopeia for confirmation.
"What's a starseed though? Is that like a plant? I don't really care about plants…" Starseed was a plant, right? Or was that a starfruit? s**t. "I can tell you I don't go around ripping them, though. Think I would know…
"But, traveling to a planet sounds totally off the chain! You're for real, right? Like you can actually go up out into the stars and s**t? Can you take me? I mean, I can't go jumping you through mirrors yet, but I wanna see space." She could visit a constellation, and that was definitely not in the repertoire of skills that Mintaka explained to him. Mirrorspace looked pretty cool, even if he couldn't find a place to sit for longer than two minutes before it left him on the ground. s**t always changed, but none of it looked particularly space-age. He wasn't sure where Mirrorspace was located, either. The only impression he managed was that it was some kind of liminal space parallel to the surface of the planet or something.
But he wasn't a nerd, so he wouldn't go further into it than that.
Well that was a surprise. "No one told you what your sphere is? Like, Morpheus, Senshi of… something? You didn't feel this sort of… sense of who you were when you awoke?" Wasn't that was they were supposed to automatically just… know themselves? Or have a guardian tell them? Oh this was weird. Maybe when someone awoke as a Mirror Senshi it didn't work like that..?
Man this was turning into a whole new land of curiosities…
"I'm the Senshi of Wonder," she said simply, though her grin was bright and excited. "My magic isn't… well, it's distraction magic, really. I could show you some time, if you wanted? It doesn't hurt. I just summon this… orb of sorts, and it keeps changing it's shape, shows you really amazing stuff, and kinda distracts people." Maybe she was saying too much, but she adored her powers, and the chance to discuss magic was not something she was going to shy away from. "Um… ok odd question, but would you ever be ok with trying your magic on me? I'm really curious to find out what it's like. I mean, as long as it's not like… damage or permanent injuries." She was also morbidly curious to find out how it felt to get drained by a wraith, but she wasn't so sure about that being a smart idea…
She kept peeking back at the protestors, surprised to see so many still up and going, but there was a definite drop in energy from a lot of them. But they… they weren't dead. "That's… that's actually kinda neat. I mean… so long as you guys don't hurt people… and yeah, if the wraiths can be hurt, definitely a better idea to stick to crowds. Plus seems like it's a way faster method for you to get a lot of energy fast," she confirmed with a grin. Still, it faltered a bit, and she hummed, crossing her arms and pursing her lips. "I… I kinda don't see the problem?" Her brow furrowed. This was becoming an issue. "Your energy it um… it feels kinda similar to the Negaverse's energy signature. So you read as um… Chaos to me, while I'm part of Order, like other White Moon Senshi and Knights. But I mean… if you guys need energy, and it's not hurting people, just maybe making them need some extra sleep and maybe some sugary drinks like how drawing blood does…" She shrugged. Where was the harm really..?
But what were they using the energy for..?
At his questions about a starseed, she merely shook her head. Didn't smile or laugh at his lack of knowing. Not everyone got the info right away, so no reason to mock him for it. "No, they're your soul." She smiled weakly, shrugging. "I can't show you, but have you ever meet a Negaverse agent? They can shove their hands into our chests, and pull out a tiny, diamond-shaped crystal. It's our souls." The smile faded, her eyes downcast as she shivered. "Earlier this year… an agent took two starseeds. One from a civilian, one from a senshi trying to save that civilian. Only managed to get one of the starseeds back. The civilian lived, but the senshi… she died. If we lose our starseeds, that's it. We die. People go into comas without them, but I guess the max is like… three weeks? Then… our bodies can't keep going. It's really horrific."
She doubted a Mirror Senshi was any different. Better to warn him now…
Trying to push away the negative thoughts, she stepped forward a bit and clasped her hands in front of her, smiling more broadly. "I haven't tried taking someone before… but I could try? If you promise to let me see Mirrorspace someday and tell me more about it. It sounds super cool."
Morpheus faltered when she pressed him for information on his sphere. She sounded like she sussed out his lie, that he knew nothing of his sphere's actual name. Dreams wasn't it, he knew that much, but how could he tell the truth? "I, uh, I got told once, but I forgot it." Another passable lie. Maybe she wouldn't continue hounding him for an answer now, because he felt certain he couldn't admit to a pretty girl that he couldn't pronounce his sphere.
"So you make distractions too, huh?" He tried to work out how Wonder fit into that, and came up short. Did looking at the sphere produce images of wonderland? Fairytales? Disney scenes? If all her magic did was distract, then he saw no problems in having her use it on him. Might turn out better than television. "Sure, you can use your magic on me." The phrase alone reminded him of teenage promises made in high school years - the stuff of movies where boy meets girl at some undisclosed location, without parental permission. Morpheus was glad he no longer suffered from that chaperone umbrella. "If it don't hurt, why not? So how 'bout, you show me yours, I'll show you mine?" He flashed her a cocked smile, his hands raised outward in an irreverent shrug. Rules never bothered him anyway.
The next information she shared erased that smile, and left him perplexed. So Negaverse agents could reach into someone's chest and murder them by ripping out their souls? Granted, that sounded like something out of a book that he definitely wouldn't read, so it fit the whole theme of being a senshi. "The ******** up with that?" He objected, then quickly apologized for swearing. "I mean, seriously. That's messed up. I hear people complaining about gathering energy all the time, but at least we don't pull s**t like that." So the soul is called a starseed, and it's a crystal that rests in his chest. The more he considered it, the more it unnerved him - someone could literally rip the life from his body, and what could he do about that? What prevented someone from violating him and taking his life away? This senshi s**t was supposed to be for fun, not for life and death matters. Maybe this whole gig was some kind of ******** up street gang. Didn't need uzis to rip out souls.
"We should go somewhere else if we're talking about this. There's still students here, and I don't think they need to go hearing about energy draining or souls." He spared a look around, and most hadn't taken note of them. Some pointed and mentioned comments to their friends, then started in the opposite direction. The students were starting to come around.
"So, uh, library? Or your place? I mean your planet. If you wanna go to Mirrorspace someday, sure. I don't think they'll ban me or something if I take you."
Morpheus bounced on his heels a bit while the night grew colder and the stares grew more plentiful. "Sooo can we go now?"
Cassiopeia was kinda alarmed to hear him say he forgot it. Forgot his sphere? Really? It was a sort of bewildering concept, but well… she nodded, backing away from the subject. Maybe he had memory issues..? If that was the case, she didn't want to be a b***h and keep poking at it. Wasn't like he looked too comfortable talking about it all…
So she went back to the other topics, the ones that seemed more… um, safe? Not as potentially offending anyways, she figured. Instead, she nodded merrily. Yep. Just distractions, but she liked it. Her magic inspired wonder--even if it maybe wasn't the most befitting in a fight. Ah well. To her? It was amazing, and she was learning other means to fight and assist in battle.
The childhood joke line made her laugh outright, bringing her hands up to her mouth to try and smother the sound. The corners of her eyes crinkled, and she was snickering by the time she was able to get her laughter otherwise under control, nodding. "Yes, exactly! Perfect kind of trade," she added with a playful wink. Didn't mean anything by it, but it was still fun.
Not that the fun could last but… she was at least grateful to have given him a heads up about the Negaverse. "They have to get close to do it, but… definitely be careful. I don't fully understand why they do it but… ugh, and they call us the terrorists?" Lumping Morpheus, and the Dark Mirror Court, in with the White Moon Senshi, but that aside… It wasn't like they seemed all big and bad to her now that she knew they were after energy. Living people were a way more reliable source of energy after all!
His suggestion to take the conversation elsewhere made her blanch a bit. Ooops, and she quickly nodded, shifting from foot to foot. Only to freeze when he said your place, wide-eyed and probably a um. Slightly painful image of the girl who felt too awkward to even go into bars, too off guard by comments like that. But when he shoved it to your planet, she quickly gave an enthusiastic nod. "I-I think we could do that. We'll just need to get a little aways from here to not cause more of um… a scene. I mean, if you're sure?" She wasn't against it. In fact… it was kinda exciting!
Motioning for Morpheus to follow, Cassiopeia carefully made her way back up to the rooftops, trying to be as discreet about their capabilities as possible so as to not make a scene. People in 'costume' were bad enough, but she didn't want anyone screaming about terrorists. Ick. Plus, she wanted a bit more of a safe distance up and away for when she tried this, on top of the fact they'd be returning to this point so… Tentatively, she reached to set a hand on Morpheus' shoulder, giving a sheepish smile before doing so. "Sorry, need to have physical contact to do this…"
Closing her eyes, she focused on that distant space. She peeked upward, opening one eye, and immediately, she spotted the constellation she knew far too well. Smiling briefly, she closed her eye again and focused her energy on that area in space.
Shortly, energy flared, oh so briefly, and then. They were gone.
kaefaux
for your records!
