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Laodica... did not like powering up much, any more. To be sure, she had to, and it was the only way to meet and know her friend on the other side of the battle lines, Dubhe, but... it just wasn't pleasant. Doing so reminded her of things she would rather forget, and so she did so as little as she could reasonably get away with. (Unfortunately, this wasn't 'none', given the way the side she was caught up in worked, but the minimum was still the minimum, and she tried to keep to that.) Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't lonely, but it crept in on her the longer she spent powered up --- the longer she had to spend alone, or doing things that she was starting to recognize really weren't, um, nice.

Tonight, though, she was powered up for the more pleasant reason: meeting her friend. Their meetings weren't regular by any means, but sometimes they crossed paths and could arrange a time to sit and talk and catch up. They couldn't talk about their civilian lives, of course, but it was still nice and they found other things to talk about without much difficulty. (Sometimes, they tried to spar or train, though it was awkward to do so knowing they were, technically, on opposite sides.) Tonight was set to be nice, too, if a bit later than their usual meetings. The sun had already gone down by the time Laodica reached the spot they had decided upon the last time their paths crossed, and...

And, well, she hoped Dubhe showed up soon, because there were things in the darkness. Things that looked like dogs, and though they weren't right on top of her yet they were definitely getting closer, and after the stories on the news... "Hurry, Dubhe," she muttered under her breath, wrapping her arms around herself and shivering from something other than the cold. "Don't leave me out here alone with something like that..." She didn't want to have to get rabies shots!

Oh, thank goodness, Dubhe was here. Laodica had been half-convinced she either wasn't coming or that the distant (and growing less so) sound of the probably-dangerous dogs meant they had gotten to and hurt her. But here she was, and seemingly alright. "Hello, Dubhe," she said, and smiled at her friend, before looking back in the direction of what she swore was a howl. She wasn't imagining things: that really was getting closer, and quickly.

"I'd love to hang out," she said, glancing over the order senshi's shoulder when she was pulled into a hug, then winced and pulled away. "But I think we'd better do so somewhere else, and fast." Maybe somewhere brighter? The stories said the dogs didn't like light, right?

"I don't know that we should fight them," Laodica said, impressed and a little wary of her friend's shift in demeanor. "I mean, the stories say they don't like bright lights, so probably all we need to do is find somewhere nearby that's like that?" And quickly, because she could have sworn she heard a bark only a few feet behind her.

"Come on, we need to move." Dogs were dangerous, rabid dogs more so, and if this was something like--- like the giant spiders she could still so keenly remember, then they'd be better off getting away from them instead of trying to fight.

Laodica had known Dubhe was strong --- it was something that seemed to come with being magical But she hadn't known that her order friend could (or would pick her up and move her out of the way of a lunging (shadow?) dog. Not that there was time to think about it, because now they had to run. Run to somewhere bright enough that maybe these things would turn back, or be stopped, or whatever it was the light did to them. The stories weren't clear, just that entering somewhere brightly-lit did something that made the chase end.

"Um," she said, but didn't have a lot of breath to speak with; not while she was also trying to concentrate on keeping her feet under her. "I don't --- know about any of that." She just wanted to get somewhere safe, not fight rabid dogs in the dark. "Which is closest?"

"Well, normal rabid dogs won't stop chasing you because of lights, right?" Laodica asked, then had to stop talking in order to save her breath as they pushed onward again. Shouldn't those dogs have stopped following them by now? They had to be getting near one of the safe spots! "And my magic, um... doesn't really do much either." She couldn't say it healed, it really didn't; but neither was it extremely useful in a fight. In fact she wasn't entirely sure it was of any use at all --- but it was still kinda fun to use it, at least.

Healing magic sounded so nice, though, even if it wasn't what Dubhe thought they needed right now. She'd like to be able to look after the people she cared about... Support them, make more friends... she was tired of being lonely, and it wasn't like people tended to stick around her in her civilian life, let alone this one. Maybe being able to heal would help with that? But--- ohhhh, she was getting distracted, and that was a bad idea with things chasing her!

"No," Laodica yelled, torn between terror at the shadow creatures pursuing them and something not unlike anger. Anger at the monstrous dogs for chasing them, anger at Dubhe for being dumb and self-sacrificing, anger at herself for not being able to outrun some dumb dogs that may or may not be some kind of monster. It wasn't fair! Bad things happened and kept happening, especially around this time of year, and--- and she had had enough!

Instead of running, she spun on her heel and bent, grabbing hold of Dubhe's wrist and bodily hauling her back to her feet. "We go together." Opposite sides or not, she wasn't leaving her friend. "Now move!"

"They're pretty weird for youma," Laodica said, but had to admit Dubhe had a point --- normal dogs didn't act like this, rabid or not, so they had to be youma. Didn't they? Then again, had the giant spiders been youma? She still didn't know that, even now, so much time later. "But alright!" And once they were safe, really safe, they could go back to their planned night. Right? Surely they could do that!

(She wasn't going to think about what else could go wrong, because that would be inviting it to do just that!)

Regardless, she was really glad to be under strong lights again. Just in case.

"No idea," Laodica admitted with a shrug. "But I don't think it's that simple." Coffinite hadn't minded light, but then he'd only been half-youma so she wasn't sure if that counted. And... it didn't really matter anymore, anyway. She'd prefer not to think about him, and focus on what was happening right now.

Which was. Um. Oh, my. Face flaring a bright red, Laodica squeaked, then smiled at her Order friend and shook her head slightly. "I'm not sure we can get away with that? But if you wanted to do something not... quite appropriate, I think there's a botanical garden not too far from here, and we could sneak in and look at the plants together?"

Whatever they ended up doing, she was sure of one thing: it would be very nice, indeed. And hopefully uninterrupted by scary shadow-dogs!

-Fin-