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 Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 3:28 pm
The fountain in the park was oddly quiet that night. Sabine found it somewhat soothing in a way - if a little off-putting. She supposed given all the chaos and tumult that had happened in the last few weeks it wasn't surprising she'd find herself feeling a bit off kilter. She'd only just recovered from her wounds when she'd run into the woman who'd inflicted them. She chided herself on how she'd acted - running ahead, leaving her court behind her to bring pain upon that woman. Imperatrix had come with her yes - but Phact had gone elsewhere and it wasn't until they had regrouped that she'd even found out where. To the center of things - to where the people who had needed help had actually been. Sabine couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt about that. She had been so caught up in her need for vindication - for bringing pain to the one that had caused her pain - that she had completely tossed away any tactical thought. She should have done more. Her fingers ran over the smooth, cool crystal of the horn that Caedus gave her. The hone she and Arthur had turned into a tactical flashlight for her. It had already helped her once - on her home world... And then a new - different flash of guilt hit her and she sighed, closing her eyes to just feel for the signatures around her. She just hoped there wasn't a chaos aura because if there was she was probably going to have to get the heck out of dodge in that case. She might be healed - but she had no desire to fight that night. Her hand moved down to the tactical backpack she had taken to carting around anymore, and opening up the zipper, she pulled out a package snack cake and opened it up, nibbling on the spongy dessert absently. She was guilt eating - and that was bad... but dang it she needed something to do that wasn't sitting here moping about her failure as the Senshi of Tactics!
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 9:12 am
Her body ached, but she was out here pushing herself anyways, because that was what she needed. The fact of the matter was that she was becoming introspective, since that night. Where had she gone wrong. What more could she do. What more could she do to make a difference? Being half-assed and aimless wasn't working, she needed to find her goal, and her focus. Instead of looking at the small victories... She needed to focus on the big ones. She needed to aim for them and work towards them. Tonight she was in search of at least one of the people who had shown up to help her and Scholomance the other night, in response to her distress call. There had been a few she hadn't necessarily had a chance to speak to, or hadn't been able to speak to for very long at the little Gratitude gathering. Scylla knew what the risk had been. Chances that she could be, at this very moment, serving darkness... was a present realization now. A greater danger and fear than she had ever felt before. Alliances. Friendships. These were things she had once, and needed to develop again. The start to that was in making sure everyone knew no contribution had been too small. So it had become a personal goal for her to speak to all of them. Finding one member of Order in lieu of another was a needle in a haystack, but she wasn't looking for anyone in particular, just someone who fit her goal. And it was with pleasure that she came upon someone that- yes. Her cell phone confirmed that this was... one of them. Probably. It looked like. Eating what could be a twinkie in the park, alone in the middle of the night. Her lips curved with a grin. Safest way to do it, if you wanted to be out at night. Powered up and clearly not looking for any s**t. "Hello," she called cheerfully, waving her senshi phone. "Mind some company?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 11:15 am
The voice almost made her jump, her mind reaching out and verifying the voice came from an Order aura. She stood slowly, brushing off her fuku and placing the other half of the snack cake on the arm of the bench as she turned to face the other with a small smile. She had attended the gratitude session for a very brief time, at least long enough to know what had happened. She had however, declined to pick up her "gift" from Scylla and Scholomance. Not as as snub or anything like that. Actually quite the opposite. She'd done barely anything to help Scholomance, having instead focused on sating a vendetta she'd had against a Captain of the Negaverse. But she recognized the senshi, as Scylla, she'd seen her at the Gratitude meet up and in passing when she'd fled from the dust-up over Scholomance with Imperatrix. "Oh, not at all, by all means, please," She said, dipping a slight curtsy as she motioned to the open spot on the bench beside her. "The more the merrier really. I'm Sabine, of Tactics. I don't think we've ever actually met." She looked to the older woman, but did not sit until she had, reaching over to the snack cake and picking it up to offer to her new guest. "Snack cake?" "I have some tea or coffee if you'd like?" She added, moving her free hand over to unzip the "snack" portion of her tactical bag.
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 7:35 pm
Oops- she had startled the other senshi, and tossed a quick, apologetic smile her way. "You don't have to stand," she protested, waving the girl back down and returning the curtsy. Her body remembered the motions far too well, the little politenesses. Jada had such things ingraned in her core, and it was a daily struggle to shove aside the simple submissions that had been browbeaten into her and remember she was her own woman now. "Thank you," she said after a moment, and made her way over to the Senshi of Tactics. "Scylla of the Kraken," she introduced herself easily. "No, we haven't, but I'm glad we have at last." Sabine was one of the few names that hadn't collected their little thank-you card, and she reached into her side bag now, pulling it out and flipping through a few envelopes. No, no, no... ah. There. Sabine. "I would love a snack cake, thank you." she said as she set the rest of the cards back in her bag and zipped it up. "No drinks, but thank you. I've already had a bit to drink earlier and I really hate having the urge to sneak to the powder room while I am trying to patrol." she raised a dark brow, dry humor, and crossed one leg over the other. Sabine had been at the Gratitude meeting, but had declined the card. She still could, but Scylla wouldn't leave without knowing why.
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:09 pm
Ah, so one of the ones who had set up the "thank you" meeting. Scylla. It was an interesting name and the sphere likewise. Though the sphere and name fit far better together than her own as far as she was concerned. All the same, she smiled and handed off the half-opened treat to the other woman, before scooting the back a bit with her foot. "No, I completely understand, that can be troublesome even on quiet nights like this." She said with a small nod. "But it helps keep me awake so that helps. I figure if I can find a moment to take a break I might as well." She watched as the woman pulled out the envelope and looked at it for a moment, a small frown coming across her face before she felt her body go a bit straighter, her chin lifting a bit as she forced a polite smile. "If that is what I think it is, then I do not need it." She said, keeping her tone even. "You have nothing to thank me for - I may have come with some of my friends to help - but I was hardly any aid to you and your friend." She added, not moving her gaze from the envelope. "You could even say I failed to help protect him in the first place. I let my rage and need for vengeance blind me to his and your actual plight. There are others more deserving of me than your thanks."
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Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 4:49 pm
Scylla gladly took the treat, settling it on her lap while she finished digging around. "That is a very positive way to look at it," she agreed with a smile. "breaks are important. I hope you don't spend too long out patrolling every evening?" usually, need for a break meant it was about time for her to wind back down and go home. Not drink more coffee and keep going- she still had a civilian life and family to concern herself with as well. "It is what you think it is, and how about we compromise." she set the envelope down. "Take the card, and do as you wish with the contents- donate the gift to charity. pin the card somewhere. Regardless of your motivations, if you had not been there that would have been more people attacking us. More people we would have had a difficult time fighting." Scylla leaned back, crossing one ankle over the other, hands folding in her lap. "All aid is not given directly. And this- this is something I can do to repay the alliest who responded to my call for help and diverted at least one enemy's attention from me, and from my companions. I would be grateful for you to accept it in the spirit it is meant. As I said- what you do with the gift is your choice."
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Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:11 pm
It was really hard to argue with that logic. Sabine was sure she could if she had more time to stew on it, but she didn't have time to stew on it - as it was being placed on the bench and she was being asked to take it and to not do so from an actual - OPEN - invitation would be rude. Especially since Scylla was doing so in person. Sabine let out a small sigh, her cheeks puffing a bit from the frustration of being edged into a corner as she reached out and took the card, nodding her head before slipping the envelope in her bag for later reading. "You are... very welcome, then. For what little my help was worth keeping that Captain busy... She and I had some history. I almost lost my ability to walk - thanks to her and her youma." She said, one hand lightly rubbing at her back. It still burned and pulled from time to time, but it had mostly healed completely back to the way it had been - minus the scars. "But, it was my choice to keep one of my friends - one of my court - from being hurt." She gave Scylla a small smile. "I guess... Should you ever need my help again - call, and I will answer - and I will do my best to ensure the rest of my court comes with me."
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 6:46 am
Victory was usually fairly sweet; Sabine gave an unhappy huff of air and Scylla tilted her head, trying not to look too pleased with herself for her tiny victory. It was in the little things. Sometimes it felt like there were so few of them in the grand scheme. Jada was going to take them where she could get them. Sabine took the card, and Scylla adjusted on the bench while the other woman tucked it away. "I have some enemies like that," she said at last. History. The heat of youma Salamanders searing and burning her back, mercilessly searing as she tried to hold them off- until Alexandros had come back for her. Zanazziite's antlers stabbing into her gut. The doctors who said she had taken away her ability to have children. The future she had wanted. Almost taken away so much more as Jada had bled out. Died. Been resuscitated. But that was all because of choices too. To protect people. To seek revenge. My choice. This whole war sometimes felt like it was a comedy of bad life choices and misunderstandings that just led to pain. Scylla returned the smile. "Thank you, Sabine. I appreciate it. And let me make sure you know too, that I am a call away as well. I don't really have a whole court to bring, but you never know when one person who can get a quick grip on things may come in handy." Hehe. A grip. With sucker arms. Get it? (Sabine probably didn't catch on.) But mention of the court took her to other places, too. Once again, memories of the Blood Moon. Comrades in arms. Friends. Lost.
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 7:39 pm
Sabine nodded her head. "This one and I have a history." Sabine was not ashamed to admit as much. "But, I am hoping I can put some of that behind me." She still felt a bit guilty and not deserving of any praise or appreciation from Scylla, but all the same... She turned to the other woman more fully then, and gave her a small nod. "Allies are always welcome, one or many." She said with a small smile. "I will never turn down anyone's help." She added. "Especially in this day and age, with the war so pitched."
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 7:22 pm
"Can I ask the name?" Scylla asked curiously, uncrossing her legs, trying to look casual. "Just so I know who to avoid." Or who to mess with and make regret some small choices. Either or. "Is the war pitched? So far it has been... shockingly quiet, with the exception of the battle a few days ago. I haven't seen too many Negas or youma. It's like they are... biding their time. Holding through winter."
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 7:50 pm
"They do seem to have gone to ground to some degree," Sabine admitted a bit more demurely than she'd meant. There was a power gap between the two women - and an experience one as well. Sabine could recognize it easily, and thus, she demurred. "I don't really recall her name, but she wears a hood and uses an arm mounted crossbow of some sort. It shoots tiny needles that hurt like nothing else - and she has a terrible bird youma made of metal. She has a habit of hunting drug dealers. I heavily advise avoiding her if you can, as I have no doubt the General she works with, or the two awful lieutenants they oversee will be far away." Sabine answered, making a face of disgust at the thought of the entire unit of Negaverse they had encountered. They'd had the situation in hand before the Captain and General had shown up - then everything had become a painful, bloody nightmare. "We didn't even know the Lieutenants worked with them until after we'd almost had them contained. They'd taken some hostages after we apparently ruined some sort of drug stash they had and reported it to the cops. They tried to get us to secure more and..." She shrugged. "We didn't play ball. Managed to get the hostages out but - it almost cost me my ability to walk.. If her youma had cut just an inch deeper..." Well they certainly wouldn't be having this conversation and her life as a Senshi would have effectively been over.
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2017 5:30 pm
Sabine looked so.... young... even compared to how old Jada herself had been when she had become a senshi. The story she told made the senshi's lips thin, looking away. Tales like that- it was why Courts and Teams were important. Groups of allies. She'd been denying herself for so long, and now it was smacking her in the face, screaming to not be ignored. "I'll keep an eye out for someone of her description," Scylla said easily, "they sound like a nasty group." A General, a Captain, two Lieutenants- and youma. a match made in hell, honestly. And taking hostages-- and yet people still saw the senshi as villains. Admittedly, some of them were. Had been. Would be turned into it by circumstance. "I am glad you're well. How long did it take you to recover?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 9:17 pm
"A few weeks, which was far longer than I would have like. I spent a full week on full bed rest, and then another week on mostly bed rest and some light movement. Week three I was cleared for 'light' activity and that's when I started patrolling again... So... Yeah." Sabine said with a small shrug. "If my doctor knew I was running around the city at night trying to fight evil - he'd probably have me locked in a room until I healed. But, I can't..." She said with a sigh. "I can't allow this to keep me from doing my duty - like answering the call of you and your friend." The good news was she'd been mostly recovered by that point and the pain was only fleeting and very temporary, but still - she wondered if it would ever really go away, or if it would haunt her forever like an angry ghost? She supposed only time would tell if the damage had actually been that extensive of not. She did have to say that the recovery of being magical definitely helped. "I mean - we can't fail in this. We're the only ones who can protect the city from the Negaverse and if we're not out here..." She waved a hand into the night air. "Then all these people are on their own and they can't fight like we can."
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Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 3:45 pm
Scylla couldn't stop her laugh; If my doctor knew I was running around the city at night trying to fight evil... God, she knew that all too well. She had been locked up in a room until she healed, and more than once; one couldn't have a creature with Jada's name and face running around in front of the paparazzi limping and wounded all the time. More than once she had been hospitalized as a 'tragic victim' of a 'terrorist' attack; more than once she'd worried she may be in danger of needing skin grafts. Yet in time- Everything healed. She had to keep Hoping. Keep the Faith. She bent her head, shaking it. "You'll get better," she promised, and her voice was heavy. "Physically, anyways. Where it counts. Magic will heal the body, but the mind- I haven't found a therapist yet who will accept a senshi as a patient." her dark head tilted, and she smiled at Sabine, her eyes warm and sad. "You're right, you know. They can't fight the Negaverse, but they are effective tools against us." Too many times, she'd seen civilians used as fodder and hostages, and yet not all of them got the picture. Saw the difference. Cared to see the difference. It only made the battle harder.
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:32 pm
Sabine nodded her head. "I'm not sure if you were involved with the invasion of Negaspace, but... I still have nightmares of that." She said with a low sigh. "Waking up in a cold sweat because I can feel the flames licking my face - hear the youma descending to eat me and the starseeds I was protecting." The feeling of helpness, of being isolated and alone even as the knight reached out to help her. But she couldn't... She couldn't take their hand because she had to protect the poor souls that she held in her pail, covering it with her body... She'd of died before letting them get devoured those poor people... She didn't even notice her hand shaking, or the tears pooling in the corner of her eyes until she felt the warmth hit her cheek, and then she quickly wiped at her eye, as quickly as she could to try and avoid showing her weakness in the moment. "But yes, more often than not they tend to get in the way when we try to save them..." She said again, with a low sigh, her mind going to the drug dealer she had tried to save from the Captain that had almost taken away her ability to walk - how in the end, she had chosen to save the woman from being shot by him - even if it meant he died in the end. "Too often - really."
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