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 Posted: Mon May 23, 2022 10:12 pm
So far, figuring out a better work-life-senshi balance……was going. That was about the best thing Reiki could say for it, really: it was going, he was working on it, and he was doing his damn best to work on it while being blessed, booked, and busy, now that summer term was really getting into full swing. All the high-emotion nonsense and highly tense confrontations notwithstanding, running around town after dark—sometimes, even after a show—was starting to feel like the personal time that so many people in his life apparently believed he desperately needed.
(It wasn’t, not really, and Reiki knew that……but mostly only because the best personal time, as ever, was spent curled up with his best girl, receiving the unconditional love of a Good Dog.)
He was hopping around roofs near Dawson Park, looking for youma or adventure or whatever might come up when—!! Reiki stumbled to a halt as his Senshi Senses picked up a sort of aura that he’d felt before, but not since Levi and Soya had taken him to the Mirror. He gay-gasped without reservation; no one was around to judge him, so there wasn’t any reason to hold back. People! My people!!
Well, maybe not his people yet—but as he leapt down from the roof and bounded into the park, Reiki had a mind to change that. Two Dark Mirror auras around lurked around here somewhere, all slick and warm and dark-feeling. Oh, he had a good feeling about tonight.Quote: I ran out of space in the title, but the characters here are Murikabushi, Sappho, Bélénos, and (eventually) Amsvartnir.
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2022 7:34 pm
Bélénos was having a pretty good time with the whole "superpowered magical girl" thing, honestly. She didn't have any friends yet, minus Soyala and Elsa, but she wasn't quite sure they counted, when they hadn't hung out very much together. But she was doing okay, she thought, gathering energy and such. The mirrorwraiths were so pretty, and she liked petting them after they were fat from stealing energy. They probably shouldn't have been so cuddly to her, but she liked them. She was on another patrol when she felt a couple of nearby Mirror auras, and one of them coming near her. Oh! Maybe it was Elsa; she'd love to have a chat with him. She perked up, head swiveling on her shoulders as she made her way to a bench in the park and sat down primly.
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2022 8:15 pm
In point of fact, it was not Elsa coming right for Bélénos, though as he followed the Dark Mirror aura that felt closer at the moment, Reiki was humming something rather a bit different than the Disney villain fare he tended to stick to using as his mental soundtrack whilst out as Murikabushi: I’m never going back, the past is in the past. Let it go, let it go, when I’ll rise like the break of dawn…
(Sue him; it was the first happy, triumphant song that had come to mind and he Reiki was very much In His Feelings.)
Following the trail, such as it was, brought him to an abrupt halt near a tall, curvy someone with a pear green ribbon tied around their short pink hair. Their little black dress landed above their knees, with a green sash around their waist that matched their headband, a collar that looked like Reiki’s own but green and significantly less frilly (and fastened with a pear in what seemed to be the same gold as their bracers), and a transparent overlay in a similar shade of green. Just like Reiki’s purple overlay! And the blue that Levi wore as Sailor Elsa!
“Sister!” Reiki burst out without bothering to explain himself, positively beaming at her. As if it helped clarify literally anything, he waved at her. “Hey! I—you—” He waved between his own outfit and hers with all the poise and elegance of a puppy who thought you were never coming home, ever. “Dark Mirror Sailor Murikabushi! Which sister—or brother? sibling?—do I have the honor of meeting?”
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2022 9:36 pm
Bélénos squeaked when the sailor—Murikabushi, or something, she didn't quite catch it, too shocked by the appearance of someone who wasn't who she was looking for, but. Holy COW, his outfit was totally, like, mega adorable!!"Sister! I'm Sailor Bélénos," she introduced herself, grinning widely and offering her hand to shake. "Senshi of Pears. It's lovely to meet another one of us! What's your schtick?"
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2022 9:53 pm
“Hunger,” Reiki told her brightly and with just as much enthusiasm as he’d had so far, as he shook her hand……until his brain caught up with his mouth and made him think about two things in particular: 1. how weird that probably sounded, being excited about being the Senshi of Hunger; and 2.—“Which…I’m not entirely clear on what that actually means, or what all it entails yet? The most success I’ve had with using those powers has been on youma so far, and they don’t really stop to give you a dissertation on how your attacks make them feel, y’know?”
Still! Tonight was a good night!! Meeting another Dark Mirror Senshi out in the wild instead of some annoying youma, or pain-in-the-a** Nega-Whoevers, or sanctimonious Order jagweeds!!! “May I say, Bélénos? In case anyone hasn’t told you lately? Your outfit looks fab on you, and your hair is adorable. Such a cute cut and it looks perfect with your cheekbones.”
But even up this close to Bélénos, Reiki very much had the feeling of another Dark Mirror being close…… “By the way, are you paired up with someone tonight? Or is the other aura like ours a special surprise guest?”
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2022 6:03 pm
Sappho's list of contacts in the Mirror wasn't exactly long. Her brother. Her girlfriend. That, uh. That was about it. So when she felt other Dark Mirror auras, close to each other, she went jogging over, and it was nice--to be able to jog powered up and not feel winded.
When she scooted to a halt, she gasped. Oh, wow--it seemed like she wasn't the only one who had gotten super lucky in the outfit department. (Then again, so had Kibi, so...)
She slowed, walked up at a reasonable pace, and waved.
"Hi! Sorry if I'm interrupting, I just--you know, there were some other people here and--hi?"
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2022 6:26 pm
Sooner or later, Reiki figured, his enthusiasm would start to get draining and he’d need to calm down—but that hadn’t happened yet, and he definitely felt a second wind coming as the third of their number approached. As soon as he felt the aura like his and Bélénos’s getting closer, he perked up (insofar as he could manage, given that he was already perked like your morning coffee with little sign of slowing down).
And as the new senshi approached, he smiled and waved right back at her.
“Hey, Miss Thing!” Was he sounding borderline stereotypical for a drag queen right now? Yeah, probably—but again, under American civil law, the universe was cordially invited to sue him if its great transcendental consciousness took any issue with Reiki being excited to meet more members of the Dark Mirror family. “Well, don’t you look like a blue-ribbon blossom? Sailor Murikabushi of Hunger, and I love the flower petal look to your overlay.”
Hopefully, just treating her like she belonged in the conversation, as she did, would get the message across……but in case it didn’t, Reiki shifted, angling himself away from Bélénos about so their new sister could come closer and have a space too.
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2022 8:20 pm
Bélénos had begun to shake her head in response to Murikabushi's question, but then the other aura stepped closer, the person in sight, and she waved at them, listening to Muri go off with a grin on her face—he was cute and rather sweet, wasn't he? "Bélénos, Senshi of Pears," she repeated so the other girl would know, giving her finger guns. "You weren't interrupting a thing, just a couple of Mirror pals catching up with each other. Wanna join the party?"
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Posted: Fri May 27, 2022 2:54 pm
It felt incredible, to be welcomed in without hesitation, and the compliment about her fuku made Sappho grin and turn around to show off the whole thing--the flower-petal overlay, the leafy green bow.
"You are too sweet," she said, "and it is a pleasure to meet the both of you. Sailor Sappho, of Violets." She looked between the two of them, and felt lucky just to be here. "Gosh, you guys are the first Dark Mirrors I've really gotten to know outside uh, my brother and his family, and my girlfriend, so this is really nice?"
To say the absolute least. expanding her network of contacts mattered, and it was very much something she knew she needed to do, it was just....sort of a lot. But she'd gotten lucky, tonight.
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Posted: Fri May 27, 2022 5:38 pm
Still running on the utter delight of meeting not one, but two new Dark Mirror sister, Reiki couldn’t help but bounce a bit and give Sappho a polite clap of her spin. She was cute in several ways, from her sweet face to her curves, and really the outfit was just the cherry on top.
“Oh, girl, same,” Reiki said with an affected, aggrieved-sounding sigh. “Well, not quite the same there in the specifics? I mean, I don’t have a girlfriend (obviously), my brother isn’t married, and as far as I know, I’m the only one in the family who’s wound up getting pulled into any magical girl stuff? Also, not to be judgmental or anything because I really don’t mean this like that? But my brother is so hard science and STEM-y, I don’t even know what he’d do if a guardian cat tried to make a magical boy out of him. Probably look for the hidden camera and a microphone.”
The idea of Junsei having anything to do with any of this was almost enough to laugh at (but only almost, because who knew if he’d get found by an Order cat when Reiki hadn’t?). Either way, Reiki shrugged. “Still, I’ve only met Elsa and Soyala so far.… They’re the ones who brought me in and all, so.
“But, hey!” He added with a smile. “You two can hit me up on our compacts now too, I think?”
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Posted: Fri May 27, 2022 7:55 pm
Bélénos giggled, also clapping alongside Reiki as Sappho spun. Oh, no. She was SO cute. Like. SOOOO cute. And. Please, God, let her name be true to form, actually. She'd probably just die if Sappho the Senshi was in fact sapphic. Please please please.
"Yeah, you two are my first, like.... ever, except for my awakening," she said perkily, beaming at the both of them. "I'm really excited about it, yeah! We can use the compacts to chat, sure, but we're together right now, so why not just hang out?"Amsvartnir had no idea what he was feeling, but he didn't like it. Three dark auras of some kind, not quite Negaverse, but something Chaos for sure. That spelled disaster, and he wasn't going to just let them do anything. Not without him checking out the situation. But he would be cautious about this. He was alone after all, and there were three of them. Slowly, he lowered himself from the rooftop he'd been stargazing on and dropped several feet away from the group of three Chaos.... someones... and started walking forward, sticking to the shadows and hoping they weren't looking for auras. Or bright white outfits hiding in the dark. Cosmos Knights were not meant for stealth....
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2022 2:39 am
"Finding people is a pain," Sappho groused. Okay, mostly it was a pain because she didn't power up much. But whatever, whatever! Murikabushi and Belenos didn't need to know how long she'd been powered for, or how lazy she'd been. If they were new, they could totally assume she was too until she was actively forced to tell them otherwise.
"It'll be good to have some more people on call," she said, and then she blinked, and glanced over. She could swear she heard something, and there was an Order aura nearby....it made her frown.
"Hey," she called in the direction of the woods, "why don't you come out and join our little chat?"
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2022 9:51 am
Everything in the conversation had been going so well, if anyone cared to ask Reiki. Bélénos and Sappho both seemed lovely, and making new friends in the Dark Mirror Court was important. But Reiki perked up like a shark smelling blood when he felt someone with a very different aura approaching them—namely: one of the many reasons why it was so necessary to have friends in the Court, all aggressively bright and so undeniably Order.
“Are you serious? Inviting some Order member to join us?” He hissed at Sappho, mostly trying to keep his voice down, but with a more-than-slight edge of anxiety creeping in. Frowning in the same direction that she had looked, Reiki pulled his posture up so he stood to his full height……let anyone coming to ******** around with them know that, even if their attacks weren’t the strongest, there were three Dark Mirror Senshi here and one of them had height and a regular gym schedule on his side.
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2022 5:23 pm
Bélénos whirled at Sappho's words, searching frantically for whoever it was that was intruding on them. Oh, no. Oh no oh no oh no. All she had for magic was some kind of really crappy support system, and it wasn't even good. She wasn't like Mercy in Overwatch, or Ana, either, which would have been cool. Then again, what could pears do to be, like. Aggressive? The blossoms meant healing and stuff, from what she'd Googled around and found. Maybe she could've made people choke on them, but that wasn't what her magic did, and it probably wouldn't, either. She was just... stuck. And scared. She couldn't defend herself against anybody, and she prayed that the other two had magic that was more of the protection type. And she privately thought that Reiki was very right. She liked Sappho, but this.... this seemed insane.Asmvartnir froze upon being called out. Well, s**t. There went that. Awkwardly, he shuffled out of the dark and gave a sheepish wave to the three people standing there. They... they certainly didn't look Negaverse, or feel Negaverse, either, but they were surely Chaos, he just... had no idea what they were. Who they were, rather. "Um, hello," he said softly, giving them all a kind smile, "My name's Amsvartnir, Knight of Cosmos, in service of the White Moon. And you all are...?" There. That introduction would give him much of the information he wanted, he was sure. It would bring more questions, but this at least gave him an in to ask those questions, considering the hostile look on the tallest of the faces, and the frightened one on the gal with pink hair, and the third.... just looked like a very disapproving teacher about to rebuke a little boy for chasing girls with a worm in his hand.
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 3:46 pm
"I'm inviting them to stop being a creep," Sappho replied, voice low. "At least if we're facing each other head on, they can't try anything sneaky." She reached over and put a hand on Bélénos's shoulder, squeezing it gently, and fixed the approaching Squire with her most polite "********" smile.
"Hi there, Amsvartnir of Cosmos. I'm Sappho, Senshi of Violets, and I am gonna have to ask you to state your business with us. I'd hate for anything to get, you know. Unnecessarily messy. Especially since you were sneaking around like a total weirdo, and that's got all of us making some assumptions."
Her magic was practically at her fingertips. She couldn't guess what Bélénos or Murikabushi could do, but there were three of them and one of him, and if he wanted to cause trouble, he'd come to the wrong neighborhood.
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