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Ohhh, this is a bad ideaaaa...

For a cat with curly fur, Ichta having a puffed up tail was almost comical. It didn't puff out with quite the same effect that a normal cat's may have, puffing up rather than out, while none of the rest of her fur seemed to bristle at all. Oh, the woes of a short coat. Why a cat as easily startled as little ol' Ichta had decided to cut thru a graveyard could have been anybody's guess.

The truth of the matter was, she'd seem something entirely more unpleasant by comparison and stones were just stones, right? It wasn't like the entire place was going to suddenly poof to life and she was going to be chased by ghosts....right? Ichta passed a wary glance at one of the gravestones as she passed by it, before hurrying along more quickly.

Just get out really quickly and- she'd hopped up onto a gravestone to try and go over it, only to startle upon finding a person on the other side of it, letting out a mewl of surprise and, unable to stop her momentum, toppling over forward and into the middle of what Marnie was doing. Ohhhhh no!

Oh! Oh dear! Oh no! Ichtaca seemed torn between allowing herself to be held and immediately trying to make an escape over Marnie's shoulder, claws sinking into flesh as she didn't settle. No, instead she let out a tiny squeak of distress. A squeak that turned into a full-blown yeowl as she realized what the young woman had seen.

Her ears perked up, then flattened back as she climbed up onto Marnie's shoulder. "Not good! It's not good at all! Can you run? You should run. I'm gonna run," Ichta said, not allowing her any time to process that yes, this particular kitty could talk. Instead, she all but jumped from the young woman's shoulder and broke out in a dead sprint.

Though if the direction she was going lead to out and not into getting them cornered, she would be very lucky.

Ichta screeched to a halt as she seemed to realize what it was that Marnie was saying - dead end. That was, it was a dead end for her, not for the Guardian Cat, who fortunately was young, spry, and fully capable of worming her way up of any edges she needed to.

Except as she stood at the top of her potential escape route, she looked over the wall, then back towards the Youma that was still stalking after them. Fear crept into her gut, and she hesitated from simply fleeing. Oh....oh, she couldn't just leave her like this, and she couldn't feel any auras nearby to maybe appeal to for help.

That left her......and Marnie.

She, herself, was fairly useless and it seemed...no...she could feel it. It was there, but she didn't want to do it. But she couldn't just....leave. She wanted to leave. A pathetic mewl escaped the Guardian Cat as she, with great struggle, dropped from the wall back into the graveyard.

"I guess...I try to get you out of here alive..." she answered. "Can you get over that wall or do we need to go around...." Ichta looked towards the Youma, "That...?"

For a very long moment, Ichta actually considered running on her own. It wasn't a brave choice, or even a well intentioned choice, but it was a consideration she made never the less. Cowardice came easily, after all.

The only thing that keeps that from being an option is you don't want her to die, right? she thought to herself, knowing fully that right then not doing it would yield a very similar result - and it would still be preventable blood on her paws.

With great hesitation, she reached out to find that - it wasn't a physical action, but it still took the same amount of work as one to produce the right item, the right fit, the right thing for Marnie. The pen would drop to the ground in front of the little brown cat, who pawed it as best as she could towards the girl.

"Take this. You should feel it inside of you - what you need to do, who you need to be."

She hoped.

Ichta's ears flicked back at Marnie's question. She understood the entire script, but for something so...specific of an inquiry, she didn't really know the answers.

"It is a channel - a way for you to speak to your other side," she answered, eyeballing the approaching Youma nervously and again reconsidering hopping the fence on her own.

"Feel for your inner star and call it here."

Maybe she wasn't very good at the script, but this wasn't what she usually did.

Even Ichta scrunched up her face to save her eyes from the blinding light that came with a transformation, especially one so close and so able to knock down an entity made of darkness. This whole 'awakening' thing still didn't sit right with her, but it had been the best and only choice.

Maybe if she was bad at explaining things (which wasn't on purpose, but rather due to a lack of practice, really) Marnie would never have to do this ever again.

"You've awoken the light of your planet, your inner star, Sailor Anastasia. Channel that - it will burn through the darkness of Chaos and send her away," Ichta looked towards the thrashing Youma, tail puffing up in fear as she backed away in a half-sideways gait.

She again flinched away from the sudden movement, tail puffing up briefly as she waited a few seconds to see if Medi would simply break through the hold and still come at them. Seemingly appeased, Ichtaca carefully crept closer to the Youma, holding one paw up at the ready to swat if there was any sudden movement.

Then, she looked back to Anastasia.

"This would be the perfect opportunity for us to escape! I recommend you take it while it's here - I certainly will be," as she spoke, she did a half-sideways walk as her fur puffed up, refusing to turn her back on Medi until she was well out of grabbing range.

"Come, run!"