His drink of choice for the evening had been hot chocolate, hands covered in the grey gloves that he’d fished from the satchel that banged against his side from time to time curled around the take out cup as he walked the quiet alleyways.
It had been a relatively quiet evening. Not completely quiet mind you given that he had run into a couple of youma earlier, but there had been nothing since then and whilst he had taken a break and had dehenshined long enough to pick up the now half-full cup of chocolate in his hands, the dark-haired eternal had been contemplating perhaps calling it a night.
Well at least he had right up until the point when his senshi phone had started ringing with an incoming call. It was somewhat unusual as Athene was more used to phone texts, but it didn’t stop him from resting the take out cup against a nearby wall in order to pull out his senshi phone.
The name of the caller received a startled glance as he picked up the call, a part of him curious as to why Liryn was calling him.
It didn’t take long for him to find out and Athene was unable to hide the exasperated tone from his voice as the mauvian cheerfully told him about the latest trouble that he had managed to nose out - because honestly the small tabby bobtail seemed to have a knack of it.
He had readily agreed to Liryn’s request though - would have agreed even if Liryn hadn’t been the one doing the asking - because trying to help newbies was something that was important to him.
And whilst he hadn’t been as close as he would have liked to the location that Liryn had given him, Athene was pretty confident that it wouldn’t take him too long to reach them given that he had the speed of an eternal senshi on his side.
While the trio waited for Athene, Breana leaned her back against the brick wall cradling Liryn in her arms like a newborn babe. Fi could only look on at her sister with a raised brow at the odd display of affection towards a talking feline. “What?” Bre replied defensively recognizing that look in her sister's eyes “I can’t help it!” she added while continuing to play with the mauvian’s ears “He’s too adorable.”
With a sigh of resignation the bluenette walked over to where her sister stood and took a seat on the ground beside her. While the the temperature outside didn’t bother Fiona too much since she worked at an ice rink several days each week, she knew it was only a matter of time before her sister started to complain. “Is there anything you can tell us while we wait for your friend?” she asked as a way to break the ice a little bit. Her words sounded weary but that could be expected after grappling with a youma for however long it took for Eleonora and Liryn to arrive and offer aid. “Your name maybe?” she offered as a suggested topic starter.
Liryn for his part had not protested the cuddling, because as it happened he quite liked being cuddled and whilst he didn't like it quite as much as he liked being scritched, because scritches were the best and he really did have a not-so-secret fondness for them, there was a nice warmth that came from being cuddled.
He had been showing his appreciation in rumbling purrs, even as a part of him kept half a mental eye out for auras because whilst he was expecting Athene to show at some point and as soon as the dark-haired eternal could make it, that was not to say that there weren't any other auras out and about and with the two senshi sisters both powered down that left just him to pick up on any potential auras - both good and bad.
He gazed up at the blue-haired senshi's - well make that currently the blue-haired civilian - approach, his purplish eyes half-lidded, "Sure" he said cheerfully. "Fi right?" He made it a question, remembering the name that Eleonora had called out in surprise earlier.
The bluenette nodded her head in reply, “My full name is Fiona but you may call me Fi.” Aside from their parents and her boss, everyone else called her by the shortened name. Not that her full name was hard to pronounce but thanks to her sister the the nickname stuck with just about everyone else. Plus, she had to admit, it made things a bit easier when in a group of friends with her boyfriend Fionan otherwise they’d both be turning heads each time someone called out to one of them.
"My name's Liryn," he continued "And I'm a mauvian although some people also call us guardians. I'm not the only one out there and you can tell us apart from cat-cats by the fact that we have stars on our foreheads." For a moment his cheerful voice turned serious "However whilst like you I am part of Order there are some of my kind out there that have been taken by and now follow Chaos."
He tilted his head slightly, ears alert for sounds other than them although right now it seemed that it was just the three of them, the cheerful note slipping back into his voice "When the two of you are powered up as senshi, the magic will help to hide your civilian form, kind of like..." he thought about it for a moment "Like a secret identity. It's a way to protect you and means that people who know you as you are now will not recognise you the senshi. We call it glamour."
The cheerfulness faded from his voice as Liryn continued, his voice once again serious as he added "The magic that hides your civilian identity - the glamour - is super powerful to the point that not even someone who you are close to will recognise you as you when you are powered up, even if you've known them all your life, however it can also be broken."
“So that’s why I didn’t recognize you when we arrived.” Breana looked up at Fiona offering her a half smile. Even with the strange twin bond connection they shared, she honestly had no idea that was her sister.
A moment of silence, two, then he continued "The easiest way to break it is to power up or power down in front of someone, however you can also break it by deliberately telling someone who you are, however it's super important to be careful and I mean very careful with the fact that you are both senshi because if the information ends up in the wrong hands then it can be dangerous and not just for you."
“Dangerous how?” Fi crossed her arms over her chest to keep her hands from getting cold. It was unfortunate that she had left her gloves back at work the day before especially with how cold it was getting, but in her defence they should have been home by now.
Curious as well the pale haired twin looked down at the Mauvian patiently waiting for a reply. Oddly enough despite her former reaction to the talking feline Breana felt like she could trust the little one.
"Because your identity is a powerful thing" Liryn's cheerful voice continued to be uncharacteristically serious. "There are people out there who would love to know that you are senshi and they would try to hurt you while you are both as you are now because you are not as strong when you are powered down like this and you can't use your magic."
There was a sad look in his purplish eyes for the longest moment "And they are the sort of people who wouldn't think anything about targeting those close to you in order to get to you." He hesitated for a moment before continuing "I should probably begin at the beginning."
He looked first at Fiona and then at Breana "You are both senshi - well to be precise you are both Order senshi or as some may call you White Moon senshi. There are others who are part of Order such as mauvians and the Knights and then there are those that are part of Chaos."
A brief pause "On the Chaos side there is the Dark Mirror Court and the Negaverse and that monster that the two of you dusted recently - the youma - comes from the Negaverse."
He paused for a moment to see if either of them had any questions before continuing "Apart from the fact that they are part of Chaos, I don't know all that much about the Dark Mirror Court apart from the fact that like Order they have senshi," he thought about Tantalus and then Chariklo as she had been before she purified. "Although they are predominantly garbed in black. The Negaverse on the other hand is bad news and a lot of them will attack you for the simple reason that you're senshi..."
He opened his mouth to continue, but ended distracted for a moment by the ping of an incoming message.
It was from Athene, the message a simple one.
Where are you?
While Liryn spoke Breana absentmindedly began to scratch the back of his ears and scruff. It was her sister's words that broke gave her reason to pause.
“So were they the ones that were responsible for the attack on the Umbrae Hotel at the beginning of the year?” The last time she powered up was while attending the New Year's Eve party with Fionan in tow. “Before all hell broke lose and those monsters attacked, people were fainting left and right. Was that their doing?” having a name to a face with a bit of added information, it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together; exhaustion or dehydration really didn’t seem to fit the sheer volume of people who were affected.
Liryn had been in the process of responding to Athene, but he paused and looked over at Fiona at her question.
"You were there too?" And for a moment his voice was startled, because her earlier mention about New Year's had not been enough for him to put two and two together.
"But yes" he finished responding to Athene's message before continuing, "The Negaverse was behind the whole thing at the start of the year."
There was a mixture of emotions in his purplish eyes, sadness, solemnity, indignant anger... Emotions mixing together as he remembered that awful time "Apparently they were using the masks to drain people but in reality the whole thing was a trap so that they could take Order people."
Liryn didn't like remembering New Year's. Didn't like thinking back to the cold January morning when he and Athene had met up with Thraen.. Where the three of them had decided to get the Watch involved in helping to search.
And he really didn't like remembering what the Negaverse had done to those that they'd taken - how they had been too late to save them in that terrible, horrible week.
A few streets away Athene found himself glancing at the senshi phone at the ping of an incoming message, albeit one that he was kind of expecting given that he had messaged the sender not that long ago.
It really was from Liryn and on reading it, it kind of explained a lot - well at least it explained why he wasn't picking up on the senshi auras that he had been expecting.
From Liryn's message though, it seemed that he wasn't too far away though and so after tapping a response to let Liryn know that he wouldn't be that much longer, Athene continued on.
Trying to track a mauvian's aura wasn't quite as easy as trying to track a senshi one, but Athene figured that Liryn would probably pick on his as soon as he got close enough given that his aura was nowhere as subtle.
Fiona lowered herself to her to knees then reached out to gently stroke the side of the little bob tails pointed ear with the back of her fingers. “I’m sorry for bringing it up.” Her voice shifted to more of a motherly tone as she offered him a rueful smile.
“Aside from the day I awoke as a senshi I really don’t have any way of relating what you’re saying to anything besides what we’re told on the news or radio.” Terrorists they say, that’s how she and the others like her were painted but the masquerade painted an entirely different story. “I have one question though, what can you tell me about the senshi with the black cracks on their forehead and chest?” Though it had been well over three quarters of a year since they had met face to face, the face of the long pink haired woman was hard to forget.
There was a puzzled look on Breana’s face but the younger of the two girls remained silent.
Liryn didn't say anything for a moment but he gently bumped his head against Fiona's fingers.
He didn't blame her for asking questions and besides it was kind his job as a mauvian to answer, even if it meant remembering horrible memories - because it was his job to protect and giving information was at the end of the day just another way of protecting.
He looked up at her question about senshi with the black cracks and then looked over at Breana, including her in his answer. "There are three types of senshi" his purplish eyes were solemn "Order senshi like you two and Athene. Senshi from the Dark Mirror Court and finally corrupted senshi that are part of the Negaverse. The senshi that you're asking about are the latter."
He thought of the nasty corrupted eternal, Atë, who was way too interested in Athene's starseed. "Some of them apparently started as Order senshi like you, but the Negaverse can turn people to their side against their will and the chaos changes them. They're not supposed to be that way though, hence..."
His voice tailed off at the sound of approaching footsteps and whilst their owner wasn't yet in sight, the eternal-strength aura was a good enough clue as to approaching.
"Athene's close" at least Liryn was pretty sure that the eternal-strength aura belonged to Athene.
Well make that that he was hoping, although it would be a bit of a coincidence if the aura turned out to belong to a different eternal.
Before either of the two girls could ask what he was about to say they both looked up in the direction of the quiet footsteps as they drew near. Fiona was the first to stand up as she reached out to offer a hand to her sister to help her up. “If it is your friend, it might be nice to find some place warm to talk hmm?” Though being outside offered an amount of privacy it wouldn’t do them any favors if they got sick from staying outside in the cold overlong.
"That sounds like a good idea" Liryn agreed in answer to Breana's suggestion, because whilst he was okay enough by virtue of his nice, fluffy winter coat, it was kind of cold - and neither of the two sisters had winter coats like him.
There was also the fact that Athene would probably appreciate finding somewhere warmer too, for all that the dark haired eternal had taken to taking a scarf and gloves along during the colder months of winter.
And then a familiar quiet voice was breaking into his musing thoughts and as the eternal approached Liryn called out cheerfully "Hi Athene."
Athene had been jogging lightly in order to cover the distance between his original location and the location that Liryn had given him, but at the sound of nearby voices he had slowed to a walk in order to step closer.
With concentration, he thought he could just about make out the warmth of an Order aura and it was enough for him to decided to at least check it out.
He caught what sounded like the end of a conversation as a feminine voice suggested something about finding somewhere warm and then knew that he had the right place as a familiar voice suggested that it was a good idea.
He stepped into visual, via the pool of a nearby street light, waiting until he was within comfortable talking distance to call out a quiet "Good Evening," his eyes glancing towards the tabby mauvian as he added "Hi Liryn."
“Good Evening,” Fiona replied but before she could so much as offer a hand in causal greeting her sister so boldly stepped forward putting herself between, and the mauvian, between the bluenette and their new visitor.
“Evening!” she interrupted tad bit more loudly than intended. In a much softer voice she then added, “You must be Liryn’s friend.”
Loathe to let go of the warm fluffy cat cradled in her arms she shifted the feline so she could hold him with her left arm while offering to shake Athene’s hand with her right. In truth it would have been contrary to Bre’s nature if she’d have let her sister approach him first which is why she so boldly took the initiative of a more friendly way of greeting.
Athene nodded "Yes" he said simply as he reached out to shake the offered hand with a grip that whilst firm, didn't squeeze. "It's nice to meet you" his gaze shifted to include the blue-haired woman, his quiet voice friendly as he added "Both of you. I'm Sailor Athene, Senshi of beads but please feel free to just use Athene."
Actually it was actually Eternal Sailor Athene and if either of the two women had been powered up then they would have felt the blaze of his aura, but Athene had never really stood on rank.
For a moment he glanced thoughtfully at the two women, as it occurred to him that it was probably not a good idea for him to stay powered whilst they were not, especially as it meant that Liryn would probably feel like he had to aura block him.
He hesitated for a few moments before slipping off his scarf and gloves and tucking them into his satchel, knowing that Liryn would let him know if there was anyone or anything dangerous around and then he dropped his henshin, the elaborate outfit that he wore as Athene fading away to reveal a young man dressed in jeans and a jumper with his long black hair worn in a simple braid.
"I hope you don't mind" he said quietly as he slipped the grey gloves back on his hands before reaching to tug the scarf back out from his satchel. "I thought it might be easier if we were all in civilian form" his lips quirked up into a slightly rueful smile as he continued "And this get up is a lot warmer than my senshi get up."
He fiddled almost absently with his braid as he added "I'm Arian when I'm like this - Arian Laith."
“It’s nice to meet you, though…” Breana looked down at Liryn with a raised eyebrow and slightly amused look on her face. “I can guarantee you that your outfit was warmer than what I was wearing.” She laughed slightly amused by the little outburst she had after the cold gust of air blew open the slit in her skirt. “At least Fiona gets a coat with her uniform.”
Behind her Fi shrugged her shoulders as if saying ‘not my fault.’ To be fair she was still wearing an ice skaters style outfit beneath the warm fur lined outerwear which left her thighs very exposed to the elements. “Random question; while we’re on the topic of outfits. Since cats are the ones that give us our pens, are they the ones to decide what our uniform looks like when we powered up.”
It was a similar thought that had in part crossed Bre’s mind when she had very pointedly asked Liryn where her pants went. Still, she too looked down at the Mauvian with both brows raised, curious if he had a say in her wardrobe.
"It's nice to meet you both too" Arian said as he let his hand drop away from his braid.
He glanced over towards the blue-haired woman, Fiona, at her question and shook his head slightly.
"No..." he started.
"No."
Arian’s voice tailed off at the sound of the second voice speaking in concert with him, eyes glancing over towards the tabby bobtail as he said, quiet voice slightly sheepish "I'll let you handle this one Liryn."
"No we don't get a say in the outfit" Liryn said cheerfully. He thought about it for a moment "I think it may be down to the individual senshi, but I don't really know how the outfits work out."
To be honest it would probably be easier if everyone could just grow a winter coat like him in the colder months, but Liryn knew that growing winter coats wasn't a biped thing.
Although talking about coats... He glanced over at Arian "By the way Arian we were talking about finding somewhere warmer to continue talking just before you came."
Arian nodded "That works for me" he looked at first Breana and then Fiona "Did either of you have anywhere in mind?"
Both girls turned to look at one another then shrugged simultaneously. “All the places that come to mind this late at night have too many people around.” Clubs, though she had no intention of ever going to one, or cafe’s or restaurants were the only location that popped into Fiona’s head that were indoors.
“What about our house?” Breana suggested. “It’s only about a 10 minute bus ride from here.”
“That could work,” two sets of eyes near identical in color looked back at Arian to get his input. “Our parents won’t be home for another two to three hours. It was their anniversary last monday so dad planned a special night out since both of them have tomorrow off.” It was sweet really, dinner at a nice restaurant and a musical at the Destiny City performance hall. Wicked was playing and this evening was one of the few that still had some last minute seats available.
Arian was somewhat bemused as Breana and Fiona shrugged in unison at his question, although Fiona had a point about it being late.
In fact it was late to the point that all the places that he could think of off-hand were most likely closed too. Well apart from the clubs...
Although a club wasn't exactly suitable given the chat that the four of them were going to have and that was even without getting into how they would even get Liryn in.
His attention turned back to the two girls as Breana came up with the suggestion of them heading over to their house, with Fiona chiming in to add in her input.
"I'm okay with it if the two of you are" he said and he was. He glanced over to Liryn "You?"
Liryn had been content to let them talk about it amongst themselves but at Arian’s question he said cheerfully "I'm fine too."
He looked around from one to the other "Although now that that’s settled perhaps we should think about making a move?" He made it a question.
Fiona reached into her side bag and pulled out her phone to check the time. “Well… If we walk back to the bus stop the next one should arrive in about three minutes. Otherwise,” and while she hated to admit it, it was a viable option. “We could power up and run home? It’s about a twenty-five minute walk from here.” Using the speed increase gifted to them once powered would cut the time down significantly. Either way they’d likely still beat public transportation.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Breana voiced her opinion while absently giving Liryn scritches behind his pointed ears. “I’m good either way.” Both girls then turned their attention on Arian, letting him make the final call since he just ran all the way here to meet them.
Arian considered the two options thoughtfully. "Well we're all powered down so perhaps the bus would be the best option" he said after a few moments. "And it would save us from having to find a place to..."
"Actually..."
Arian's voice tailed off as he was interrupted, eyes shifting to glance at Liryn who seemed quite comfortable where he was "Hmm?"
"Actually would you mind going for the powered option" Liryn said. "I know it will mean finding a place to dehenshin again when you get closer to your place..." And at this he looked up at Breana. "But I only gave you the basic senshi phone" he looked over at Fiona "And I wouldn't mind checking your phone whilst I'm at it." A pleading look crept into his purplish eyes "I can check them closer to your place before you all power down again but the new senshi phone is very useful and I can keep alert for any auras."
He turned his gaze towards Arian "And you can do the contacts thing."
Arian considered it "I'm fine with that, if everyone else is" he said with a nod. "And Liryn has a point about the contacts."
“Sounds good to me,” Breana was first to voice her non-objection. Sometimes it is best to just take the plunge and so, without further delay, she held onto her henshin pen and powered up. Just like before the cold air sent a shiver up her spine and caused a trail of goose bumps to race down Eleonora’s bare arms.
Fiona was the next to follow suit however she did not remain idle beside her sister. Instead, she reached up to unclasp the crystal looking button that held her coat closed then draped the fur lined outerwear over her twin’s bare shoulders.
“But you-” Eleonora began to object only to be cut off by Alcor’s stern look and shake of her head.
“I’ll be fine. Not to sound cliche… but the cold doesn’t bother me. Not only is my element, but I do work at an ice skating rink.” She reminded her sister. It seemed that the cosmic tailor had a sense of humor though since the uniform under the coat was simply that; an ice skaters uniform with a sparkly light blue skirt to boot.
Arian nodded and set down his satchel before once again slipping off his scarf and gloves and carefully setting them atop of the satchel.
His senshi outfit wasn't really made for the cold and didn't come with gloves and whilst he had brought gloves along with non-powered things had a tendency to disappear on powering up if they remained on the person - and Arian really didn't want to do without the gloves or scarf.
With that done he finally pulled out his henshin pen and powered up.
As Athene he could feel the two warm auras from the two sisters and the much smaller, barely there aura of Liryn. It seemed that their luck was holding though as there didn't seem to be any other auras around - well at least he wasn't picking up on any.
Liryn had waited patiently as first Breana and the Fiona and then finally Arian had powered up, had felt the warmth of the auras from the two sisters ping into being followed by the blaze of Athene's aura.
He had continued to wait as Alcor had dropped her coat onto Eleonora's shoulders and Athene had reached down to reclaim his gloves and scarf.
However once Athene had slipped his satchel back on his shoulder he looked at Eleonora and Alcor "Soo which way do we need to go?"
Because he was ready when everyone else was
Eleonora watched Athene with a curious tilt of her head but before she could ask why he set his bag down Fiona interrupted her thoughts. “The quickest way is that way,” she pointed in the direction east of where they all stood. “Our house is on Linden Ave N over by the lake with the walking path around it.” During the summer the place was quite active with both swimmers and dragon boat racers alike. However, despite the cold, people still brought their dogs to the lake and ran a lap or two.
“I’ll let you know when we get close,” Alcor added.
With a pleased smile Eleonora looked down and gave Liryn scritches behind his small pointed ears to get his attention. “Let me know if you see a good place to stop to take care of the phone thing you mentioned okay?”
Alcor was the first to depart from their little group and with an effortless jump she landed on the rooftop of the building beside them. Her sister’s mouth fell agape in utter shock must like Genie from Aladdin after escaping from the Cave of Wonders. “How did she--?” Slate blue eyes as wide as saucers looked over at the eternal still beside her in nothing shy of awe. “Can you do that too?” She asked, completely mind blown.
Athene had been in the process of slipping his scarf and gloves back on but turned his head quizzically in Eleonora's direction at her question.
He opened his mouth with the intention of quietly querying, however Liryn started speaking before he could say anything.
"Sure he can," Liryn's purplish eyes were half-lidded from the scritching but they had been full open when Alcor had made the jump from ground up to nearby rooftop. "You can too" his cheerful voice was matter of fact. "At least when you're like this you can."
A thought had him pausing thoughtfully for a moment before he continued "Actually as an Eternal, Athene can probably jump higher than Alcor, because senshi grow stronger the more that they grow into their powers."
And then as it occurred to him that he had yet to answer Eleonora's first question he added "And yes I'll totally keep an eye out for somewhere that looks good to do the phone thing for the two of you." In fact he'd keep both eyes out as well as his senses on alert to boot - because it would be no point in doing one without the other.
Athene stepped up to where Eleonora stood with Liryn "It can take a bit of getting used to" because it had certainly taken him a while to get used to the fact that jumping up onto rooftops was a thing he could do when starting out as a senshi. "But it can kind of come in useful sometimes." He started walking towards the rooftop that Alcor had jumped up onto but kept his pace light as he waited for Eleonora to follow "Shall we?"
Once he was sure that Eleonora was following with Liryn, it didn't take long for Athene to jump on top of the roof top after Alcor and follow after her as she started to lead the way eastwards.
Liryn had stuck with Eleonora when they had all headed off and true to his word had kept an eye out for somewhere that seemed suitable.
He wasn't sure how long that they'd been going for when he spotted the park, but it looked like it would be quiet enough and he wasn't picking up on any auras...
And so he called out "Hey Eleonora and Alcor, how about here?" as he hoped that the two sisters would hear him.
The Senshi of Heat was the first to respond and abruptly skid to a stop “F- Alcor” she yelled nearly calling out her sister's actual name. This whole two name thing was confusing as all hell especially when trying address her own twin.
Considering the Senshi of Cold had been the one leading the group, it made her a bit hard of hearing, especially when it had been forever and a day since she had last heard someone call her by it in the first place. When finally she turned around, Alcor spotted her twin silently pointing towards a play structure in the neighborhood park where the interurban trail began. She nodded understandingly then followed after the two, beside Athene, until their feet touched solid ground beside a set of swings.
“We’re just a few blocks away” Alcor noted with a nod of her head in the general direction of their parents house. Two blocks over if that.
Whilst as an eternal, Athene was the fastest out of the three senshi, he had been consciously moderating his pace to keep pace with the others.
Or at least trying to.
At some point however he had somehow ended up a little ahead of Eleonora and Liryn and a little behind Alcor.
The sound of Liryn's voice had him tilting his head backwards towards the pair, his feet slowing as he noticed Eleonora skid to a halt, but before he could say anything he heard the white-haired senshi call out to Alcor and get her attention.
It hadn’t taken long after that to make for the park that Liryn had apparently spotted, Athene catching up to Alcor as she touched down by a set of swings.
He had ended leaning against the frame of said swings, his eyes glancing towards Liryn for a moment as he asked quietly "Here?"
"Yep here works" Liryn agreed cheerfully, because he wasn't picking up any auras - well okay it was perhaps more correct to say that the only auras that he was picking up on were those of the three senshi with him.
He looked first at Alcor as he said "I'm going to need your senshi phone for the next part Alcor" and then up at Eleonora as he continued "And I'm going to need the phone that I gave you earlier as well Eleonora."
Then he looked towards Athene as he added "Why don’t you get your senshi phone out too Athene and go through the functions." He paused for a moment "Or I can do it once I’m done with sorting out the phones.." Or perhaps they could even do a bit of both.
Athene waited for Liryn to finish speaking before adding quietly "I’m happy to go through the phone functions whilst Liryn works on yours or if you have any questions that you want to ask me then I’m equally happy to try answering them to the best of my ability."
For a moment Eleonora looked at Liryn with an owlish gaze and was about to admit she had forgotten it until her sister managed to summon hers out of thin air with a simple flick of her wrist. Huh… Seemed simple enough and so, without delay, she summoned her phone as well.
