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 Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 12:18 pm
Quote: The Silent Firework (9) : Fireworks are aplenty this time of year, and there’s always something going off somewhere in the city. Little pops and noises are common, but something about this firework is completely abnormal–it makes absolutely no sound. Instead, light and color splashes across the night sky and leaves a lingering glow behind. No one knows where it came from, but it lit up the sky like a midnight sun, and was gone after about a moment. Anyone who managed to see it in person may find that when they blink, there is a residual glow before them. Strangely, it even seems like there’s a trail of faded, glowing light guiding them somewhere. Maybe you’re led to some special place, or some special person, or–maybe the trail ends before you ever find out where you were supposed to go.
Even if she had only really patrolled a few paths and was mostly looking at her feet at the time.
Not every patrol needed a calculatable result, right? Sure, she would not really get the EXP she so desperately needed, but it felt like she was trying to level in the wrong spot and her power was just not moving, anyway. Sure, she had learned a few things in every encounter, but it was mostly depressing things like how to soften a punch to the face by turning just slightly, or how to get back up after being knocked over for the ninth time.
Her attention was drawn from her sulking as a flash of light summoned her gaze skyward. Strange, she had not even heard fireworks going off.
Blinking, she watched the shimmering lights fading, but found no more fireworks going off right away. What sort of a show was this? There seemed to be a glow in the air, though, and, in her side quest seeking brain, almost a pointer. A path. Well, she wasn't doing anything else and had no real inclination to power up again.
So she decided to walk toward it.
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:30 pm
At this point, Sparrow only tentatively trusted the Star Festival, but that was slowly steadying as ze went. People let their guards down during festivals, and zyr family had mostly held off on the you're such a shut-in, get out of the house and have a good time for once this year (...mostly, but not entirely; the third push had gotten zem to enter the 'I am three steps away from going on a tirade' sort of voice that warned everyone off the topic for a few days to save their texts and their ears), so it was -- tolerable. Not that ze'd been around for the last couple of Star Festivals, anyway, so maybe things about them had changed and they were... more interesting?
The answer was, as it turned out: Sparrow had no idea, because ze had never actually paid enough attention to the Star Festival to know if anything had changed. But it was June, and that was enough cause to get zem out to a "social" "event".
The firework that went off nearby had zem cringing reflexively - too damn close - but there was no compressive wave of blasting sound, and in fact no sound at all, just a trail of glimmering light that curved around the corner. So Sparrow followed --
And there was already someone on the other side of the glittering line, too. "Did you hear that too," Sparrow said, asking without really asking, with a sharp gesture towards where the firework had been in the sky.
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 6:06 pm
There must have been more fireworks, this time making noise, but Kate was not paying attention to them. She was took focused on the strange streak of light in the sky from the first, quiet one, and she was sure she was on a new quest line. It was fun to have things like this happen when she was not powered up, too, as there was far less chance of ending up punched or stabbed.
Hopefully, anyway. And if it was a trap, they probably deserved someone showing up, even if she did not intend to be a victim of any negaverse scheme. It was just a cool presentation.
She pretty much did not have a choice BUT to follow it.
The voice near her nearly made her jump out of her skin, wild red hair falling in front of her face as she whipped her head around to see who had joined her. Not a chaos soldier, at least on the outside, so she relaxed a bit at letting herself get so distracted. Shiny lights were another of her short attention span's weaknesses, apparently.
Maybe she really was turning into a T-Rex.
"I didn't hear the one that left that line at all!" she said, immediately comfortable and waving her arms excitedly, "and it's so weird that it left that kind of line thing! It's definitely a path, right? Like we HAVE to follow it. Want to see where it goes?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2022 7:21 pm
Was she insane? Sparrow had to bite back zyr first and immediate response - it's probably a ******** trap, why the hell would ze follow it, Sparrow didn't even know her -- but. Okay. No. That was a paranoid sort of response.
Even if people were disappearing (again) (not that it was being reported on the news, because regardless of if it was a Negaverse plot or natural magic, Infiltration would probably be shutting down any change of that news getting out - wasn't that their job? Larimar wouldn't know, ze wasn't Infiltration) (but people going missing, disappearing, turning corners and falling into rifts - or at least that's what Twitter was saying, anyway - was abnormal to the point of concern, and it was a ******** distressing point of concern), that didn't mean this was related to it. It was more likely it was benign magic, some silly little cantrip of a soundless firework and a trail of light leading zem to some random young woman ze'd never met.
And would, perhaps, never meet again. Maybe ideally. Something about her immediate excitedness, how comfortable her body language was when talking zem, Sparrow didn't like. This wasn't unusual: Sparrow didn't like most people, anyway.
But anyways: that was paranoia talking. This was harmless, at first glance, and so was she.
.
"Yes, sure," Sparrow said, shoulders not relaxing at all, "I'll follow you if you head on and follow the line." Which was a weird and obfuscated way to say anything, but speaking to strangers and not being an a** about it was hard, sometimes.
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2022 4:01 pm
Kate laughed, nodding her head.
Of course, she could see why this might have felt weird for literally anyone that was not her. A stranger, and an exuberant one at that, asking to go prancing off into the woods together without anything but a strange light to guide them? Really, even as she was thinking of it in that moment, she probably should have changed her mind about the whole thing.
But the oddity of it just made her want to press on. Even move faster. She wanted to see what sort of a quest could be waiting at the end of such an obvious marker.
"My name's Kate. Dearing. It's nice to meet you!" She had her eyes turned up as she spoke, watching the trail the strange firework had left, though it did not seem to be fading in any kind of hurry. How many other people would be following it, she wondered, and what would they find? It was the most exciting part of any quest, really: the unknown.
"Do you think this is some sort of publicity thing?" She asked, though a voice in the back of her mind also suggested it could be a Negaverse thing. If it was, she would handle that when they got there: she might still be reasonably new to the senshi thing, but she was certainly fearless about facing danger.
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Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2022 5:27 pm
"Sparrow Riley." Ze offered zyr name in a terse, cut-off tone; it'd be a lot ruder than ze was willing to be to not give it in return, not after Kate had given hers with literally no prompting, but it was... names were personal. Especially chosen names! It felt weird to share it with someone ze'd hopefully never see ever again.
"It could be some kind of publicity thing? Seems kind of weird to just deploy it on random people, but what would I know. I'm not sure what else it'd be, anyway. ...guess we can't know unless we investigate."Lithiasaur i'm good to fade to black & fin on your reply!
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:03 pm
Kate grinned, nodding her head. Sure, it looked like her companion was less than willing, but there was an adventure ahead. She was sure of it!
That, or they would both be wasting a lot of their evening on nothing at all, but at least it would be a good story either way. At least, that was how she viewed it. There was no learning, no raising exp or furthering a story without taking actions, even if sometimes they were the wrong ones. Experience was experience, even in small amounts.
She led the way to follow the trail, almost immediately forgetting she had dragged someone else into it in her hurry. At least it would give them a chance to slip away any time they wanted to, without any feelings being hurt.
Not that it was all that easy to upset the adventurous and rambunctious civilian side to the senshi of fossils. To her, it was going to be a good night, no matter what.
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