Per the navigations instructions, Sonia pulled into the center lane and put her blinker on then waited a few minutes until there was enough space between cars to make the turn. The neighborhood itself seemed pretty nice as she slowly drove down the street trying to read the house numbers at the side of each garage.
When she finally found the right one, she pulled over alongside the curb, put her black Honda Civic into park and just sat in her car for several minutes glancing down at the handwritten directions she had been given.
What will you have me do then? And what happens if I fail to meet your expectations. The exact words she had asked Zinkenite before he had to face the consequences of her actions against Benitoite. His response was simple, to the point, and though she had met with him once since then, what he said still left her shaken. Since you seem to anticipate death… I fear that I would have little choice. To make a punishment at all effective for you, then we would turn you… into a youma.
Sonia closed her eyes for a moment and leaned her head back against the headrest. Never had she been this nervous meeting someone in her life. There was just simply too much at stake if this didn’t go well and to be honest she really wasn’t sure how much Zinkenite had told her potentially new partner.
“I can only delay the inevitable for so long.” She let out a sigh, pulled her keys out of the ignition and got out of her car. After swinging her side bag over her shoulder she closed the door then made her way up the driveway.
Please don’t be home, please don’t be home...With what courage she could muster given the uncertain circumstances, Sonia rang the doorbell then waited for what felt like minutes until she heard someone shuffling around inside.
~~~
The person who opened the door had a mess of wild red hair, vibrant green eyes, a feather boa, A leather mini skirt over skinny jeans tucked into old combat boots and a rather worn out NASA t-shirt. There was a smudge of colorful powder across one of their cheeks and they smelled rather like they’d gotten more perfume on them than was strictly intended to be worn.
“Who are…” They started to ask and then paused glancing you over.
“Are you with the… mmm dude in the long sorta coat with the blue emo-bangs” They asked alluding vaguely to the general sovereign without being so specific, they hoped, that they couldn’t be mistaken for a good many people in the city.
~~~
Sonia stood there with a rather blank expression on her face.
She blinked once… then twice… then looked over her shoulder back at her car. Did he… er she… really just say that? It had to be a trap of some sort to try and get her to agree to a statement that would later bite her in the a**. There had to be cameras somewhere; the doorbell maybe?
One glance at the rather generic looking button proved that speculation false. “He does have blue hair… yes...” Sonia agreed hesitantly.
~~~
They leaned out of the door, glanced either way and then stepped back to let you inside. “Come on then!” They said chipperly. “Don’t mind the mess, making bath bombs!”
“Right um... “ They closed the door and locked it. “Liel, at least like this, and you? Name? Pronouns? Food Allergies?”
They offered a hand to you, nails painted a matte black with glossy tips in a sort of creepy ‘french tip’.
“Oh… Right, Perfume allergies Asthma? Do I need to clean up in here so I don’t like, kill you?”
~~~
She hesitantly reached out to shake their hand with a very bewildered look on her face.
“Sonia, and you're fine. I don’t have any allergies. At least none that I’m aware of.” Sure there were certain scents that would make her sneeze but everyone had that issue to some degree, or so she assumed.
Having completely missed one out of the six questions Liel had asked bombarded her within quick succession, Sonia instead glanced around the room, making a mental note of the general layout and where certain things were. “Should I umm... do you want me to take my shoes off?”
~~~
“Naw… you’d get like… powder in your shoes and stuff. “I got told to expect you, kinda. I figured it would be safe enough to be vague. Come on, I’m packing some bombs right now, you can help if you don’t mind. We’re a bit behind since business picked up.
They beckoned her in, heading towards a living room with a floor eerily sporting a sheet of plastic and bowls of colorful powder.
They took a seat, rather unceremoniously on the floor.
“SO… I hear we’re working together.”
~~~
“Hold up.” Sonia took a wary step backward. “You’re packing what now?”
Did he… she… say bombs? For a second it felt like she had hit a mental wall with that last thought, because for the first time since the front door was opened, Sonia honestly didn’t know which one was correct. That’s why they asked which pronoun she went by;
Oh no… she mentally grimaced feeling too embarrassed and ashamed to go back to that question now.
~~~
“Bombs!” Came the chipper reply. “Bath bombs, my buddy and I, we sell them at the farmers market.” They said sounding chipper as they stooped and scooped up a pale green ‘cake’ that had clearly been moulded into the suggestion of an easter egg by a silicone mould.
“Like so! Once they dry I can pop em out and then if they need a bit of fancy I paint on them. This is the start of the batch for Easter. Careful sitting on the couch, I think there’s still a knitting needle loose. I dog sat for a neighbors pit bull and the lovable dork knocked them everywhere and I’ve not been arsed to find them all and pair them up again just yet.”
~~~
That makes more sense The tension in Sonia’s shoulders seemed to ebb away when Liel explained that they weren’t, in fact, making explosives. She was about to have words with Zinkenite if that was the case.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Feeling overly embarrassed by her snap assumption she offered her host a rather lopsided awkward smile as she set her bag down beside the couch and took a seat beside them.
Having only heard of the little bath baubles, she reached over to pick up a completed one and inspected it curiously before setting it back down. “I would have called first, but I was only given a name and an address. If you’re busy today I can come back later.”
~~~
“I try never to not be busy!” They said ever so cheerfully.
“If you’re busy you’re not bored after all. I think this whole… night business is going to be very interesting indeed. I mean the uniform leaves something to be desired, but hey, what can you do? It’s like...suddenly superpowers! So cool, and it’s like the movies! They used to always cast the good guys in white but, nowadays it’s always the anti-hero. So much more than a ‘strict sense of morals and a white hat’... they are more interesting
~~~
Sonia felt oddly disarmed by his almost bubbly, if not enthusiastic behavior. If anything, her new partner almost reminded her of how she felt when she was first awakened. Learning that you could use magic on your 21st birthday felt kind of surreal at the time but left her excited just the same. That was until things quickly deteriorated into what they were now.
“If you think your uniform is bad…” She glanced over with a slight smirk on her face and let them finish the thought. “From what I understand, Lieutenants start out with random trinkets for weapons.” It was an odd practice, to say the least. Almost as if the Negaverse didn’t trust their new recruits with something to actually defend themselves with. Perhaps that’s why she was here because she had magic and could help protect him against order senshi and their knights while Liel got used to their new abilities and worked towards a promotion.
“What did they give you?” she wondered.
~~~
“An Otterpop.” They said looking unimpressed. “I mean, I’m stronger, I can jump wayyy higher which is kind of great considering one of my hobbies but, also freaky when you weren’t expecting it. But Come on now, an otter pop?? What are they gonna give me next, an ice cream?”
They rolled their eyes. “Eh...I guess the uniform isn’t awful really, but it has fur...like that’s weird. And what am I gonna do in the summer?
“So yeah, anyhow we’re working together on this nonsense… do you have any like, routes you like to take or? I’m still sorta fresh which is kinda funny given the set up between us but, I’m open to listening you know?”
~~~
“Until recently it had been almost two years since I last powered up. But it really depends on what your goal is for the evening.” Sonia segued the conversation more into the logistics of where she went and why as opposed to allowing him the chance to ask why it had been so long. It wasn’t a conversation she was really inclined to have, not now anyway.
“Unless you’re actively looking to encounter a White Moon Senshi or their Knights, my suggestion is to avoid parks. Rather, stick to places you know and slowly branch out from there. That way, if you get caught, you’ll know the quickest routes to escape. “ Fight on your own terrain and don’t be lured into unfamiliar territory. That happened to her once not long after awakening. A senshi with a pink and white uniform that threw electricity had pursued her into the woods. The fight itself could have easily gone either way but Benitoite’s unexpected summon was ultimately what saved her from one disaster and landed her in another.
“For quota gathering, it varies from person to person. I find drunks leaving a bar are often easy targets usually. If they get angry enough to fight, chances are they’ll miss. And if you manage to drain them completely,” Sonia shrugged “they’re likely not going to remember what happened the next day.”
~~~
endejester
Moved from Docs - TBC
