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 Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2022 2:36 pm
It had been a while since they’d had a real Court meeting, but Adria couldn’t really say that he was anxious about it. They might not have all met up together as one big group, but he’d seen Varuna not so long ago, and they’d spoken over texts since then, too. He’d seen Lysithea regularly, and sometimes Malus, too–and even stopped at his food trucks a few times, so he knew he was doing well. He was close with Kari and checked in often, but she was out of the country and in her absence had sent her support and best wishes. Of all of them, he was least close to Ilse, but that didn’t mean he didn’t hear about her and wasn’t always glad to get a good update.
Adria was torn between arriving early and on time, and in the end his anxious fear of being late was defeated by his anxious fear of being early and being picked off by some angry Negaverse agent.
As he neared the rendezvous point in the back of the park, two other Eternal Senshi signatures were just on the horizon.
He knew them well enough to recognize that it was probably Lysiteha and Malus, and he breathed a sigh of relief and spent the next minute smoothing out his uniform and fixing his hair in hopes that he wouldn’t look so flustered when they got there. He could feel other signatures closing in too, and it was with great relief that they were the only energy signatures they’d picked up.
Malus and Lysithea were coming together–an easy, safe choice since they lived together, and Malus was still a little jumpy when he had to go out alone. He avoided it whenever given the chance. He’d packed a few snacks–partly because he’d just come from the food truck and had leftovers, and partly because he wanted to come with a peace offering. He knew these people, or at least knew of them, and he wanted to make a good impression. And, food always helped ease the nerves. Especially cheese.
Lysithea’s enthusiasm was encouraging, and she’d set her eyes on helping people again. She was passionate about it, and he was already impressed at how driven she’d been in the past few weeks after earning her wings again.
In a lot of ways, it was like the Lysithea he used to know–but she was someone else now, too.
He’d always supported her, so now was no different. He wanted her to have every option to succeed, especially since she’d moved into the forefront of their group and was still finding her footing again.
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2022 2:45 pm
Lysithea felt the other aura coming closer and and broke into a pleased grin, moving to greet whoever it was, and when she saw it was Adria she ran to give him a quick hug. “Hi! Oh my god I’m so nervous, but so excited at the same time…I really, really hope this all works out the way I keep imagining that it will in my head.”
She took his hand and led him back to where she stood with Malus, grinning at her two very best friends in all of this. The two that had worked so hard to save her, to bring her home…the two that she trusted with everything.
If Lysithea were going to be honest with herself, she was worried that something was going to go wrong, that Varuna would change her mind after meeting everyone…or that something would happen to Ilse on the way here…she seemed to have the worst luck but.
The core of things was here, and the bond between the three of them was as strong as she could ever have hoped. “Now we just need to wait on Ilse and Varuna…I do hope that Kari comes back soon, but I’m glad she’s having so much fun overseas. I might be just a little jealous of that and.” She shrugged, grinning again and thinking about what Zac would do if she asked him to take her on a romantic European getaway.
Maybe after all of Alastors things were fixed. Provided they could be fixed.
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2022 5:28 pm
Varuna approached the location slowly, arms crossed carefully under her chest. She wasn’t cold, but she still felt a chill at the thought of being forced to meet people she didn’t know. She knew Adria, and was getting to know Lysithea. But she didn’t know the others, and already felt out of place because she could tell her aura was more underpowered than the others.
Did they even have use for her? She wasn’t an Eternal like the others. She’d been so focused on her schooling that being a Senshi had been set aside until, well… recently. She was trying to do more, but so far the animals at the clinic needed her more than other Senshi or Knights did.
She didn’t say hello when she made it within rage of the other three, but nodded to them instead.
And then she pulled out a stack of --
This year’s calendars.
Yes, she was aware they were almost at the end of the year, but each calendar had a different animal on them, and a different photo on each page. She happened to have a calendar from almost ten years ago still up in her office that she switched out monthly because she liked the pictures. Maybe they would consider it thoughtless that she had extra calendars laying around, but this was the best way she could introduce herself.
“There’s different dog breeds, cats, I think a couple horses,” she said quietly as she spread out the stack of about ten calendars for them to pick from. If they wanted. If not, she would just keep them for herself.
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 4:11 pm
Ilse had not thought to bring gifts. Maybe she should have, she thought as she arrived, but she had only brought herself and a lot of eagerness. She knew some of the people there--Lysithea, of course, and Malus, and both of them got a bright smile from her. The other two were unfamiliar, and they got waves.
"Hi! I'm Ilse," she introduced herself. "Uh, Senshi of the Unattainable?" Because that was probably important. She looked down at the calendars that the pretty girl in white and ice blue, with her lovely butterfly wing bow--oh, wow, Ilse really wanted to get a closer look at that, she wondered if she could recreate the effect with the right Earthly materials, though probably not--had brought, and she gasped, delighted.
"Oh, these are so cute!!" She scooped up one and delightedly started flipping through it. "Thank you!"
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Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:35 pm
Adria felt a brief moment of panic when the others arrived with gifts, and he frantically wondered if he had anything worthwhile to pass out, but–no, he was just finding something to get worried about. He didn’t need to be, he was with friends.
“Hi, Ilse. I’m Adria. And this is Varuna.” He smiled at her, reassuring and cheerful despite his nervousness. He accepted a calendar and–if he were being honest–he didn’t even look at the dates, he was immediately charmed by the animals on the cover. “Oh–” he looked up from the calendar, “And this is Malus.”
“I like the cats,” Malus said, and paused, shuffled a bit, and looked a little embarrassed, because that’s not what he meant to say. “Wait. I meant to say hi, it’s nice to meet you. I have a dog.” No. That probably wasn’t any better, wow. He held up the calendar to show what he was looking at–a grinning puppy, cream and black and brown, and so fluffy it looked like he could have smothered himself in its fur. “I mean, this looks like my dog, when he was a puppy. I’m going to hang this up in my room, thank ********, lmao good thing he wasn’t the leader, he’d just get distracted with cute animals. It was hard enough not to pull out his phone and show her what he meant. “The white cat almost looks like Soleiyu. But don’t tell him I said that, he’d tell me I was wrong.”
“Soleiyu’s a little prettier,” Adria said, but he wasn’t one to argue–especially not about something like that. He’d spoken to Varuna about the Mauvian before, and said, “I hope you get to meet him soon.”
Malus glanced back at the calendar. “Oh, he was going to come tonight but he’s trying to finish a project. He wanted to say hello, though. But, um. Yeah, anyway, I’m glad we could all meet up. I brought some snacks because, um. Well, you know. I think better with a full stomach, and Lysithea said this is important, so. I’m glad we’re all here. I’ll get them in just a minute, just...” His eyes drifted to Varuna briefly and then went back to the calendar. “Wanna finish flipping through so I don’t get cheese on it. Thank you, I like this a lot. You should just hand these out to the Negaverse, I’d purify for some cute animals.”
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2022 3:47 pm
“I’ve spent far too much time around Malus and baked a bunch of cookies that I figure we can have later, but,” She reached out and picked up one of the calendars with the horses and gave Varuna a bright, excited smile. “I love these! What a fun gift!”
Having everyone there together made Lysithea feel rather warm inside and she swallowed, slipping the calendar into her subspace pocket before she got too distracted by looking at the pictures and drew in a breath. “So! Here we are. I suppose that I should have planned a speech or something but…” Giving a sheepish smile, Lysithea tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and cleared her throat, nodding to herself. “I was thinking…we could come up with a name for our group, maybe as a…you know. Team…building thing? From what I understood we didn’t really have any kind of official name before…”
She glanced at Adria and Malus for confirmation of this and shrugged. “But…I mean we’re all pretty…and this is completely superficial but I was thinking maybe Fantasia? Or…you know, Phantasia with a ph so we don’t get sued for copyright by like…and overlord…mouse company…?”
Wow this wasn’t…coming out the way she had wanted it to at all but. “...We just look…very storybook, you know? We have like, the charming knight with Malus, we have the duke of sunsets with Adria, Varuna, you look like a literal ice fairy and I adore that so much. Ilse, you’re the bride from the end of the story with the happily ever after…and I’m just some unicorn maiden…I don’t know. We should just…have a name, I guess. It feels…more official?”
To make them a group. To encourage cohesion. Promoting unity before she dropped the full plans of how they could help Alastor.
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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:17 pm
Varuna didn’t speak when Ilse introduced herself, but instead nodded in greeting and made sure she had enough space for the others to pick through the calendars she’d brought. They weren’t anything special, and they were being given away at the clinic because the year was almost over, but the pictures were good quality.
She didn’t have to introduce herself at least, because Adria was introducing her to the others -- which she preferred. She nodded politely to Malus as well. Varuna didn’t mind that he talked more about the animals he liked than saying anything to her. She would rather talk about animals too. Not because she didn’t want to be around them, but because animals were easier.
Being the newest, and the one with the weakest power signature, Varuna didn’t feel like she had a say in what the name of the group was. She hadn’t planned on needing to come up with a name, so she hadn’t been prepared for it.
“Phantasy sounds magical,” she agreed quietly, and folded her arms over the rest of the calendars once the others picked the ones they wanted.
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:19 pm
At least everyone here was a little bit awkward! That made Ilse feel better about the whole thing. She wasn't exactly perfect at this, either, especially since there was the big...thing...where she'd come from the Negaverse and sort of cobbled together How To Be A Person from fragments of memory.
"I'm glad to meet you all! And I really look forward to working together!" She was part of a real magical girl team, which was...pretty fantastic! And everyone seemed nice, which was good for her.
The question of names made her tap her cheek thoughtfully. "Phantasy, or Phantasia, yeah! I think that sounds really lovely, and you're right--look at all of us, we deserve a name as sparkly and lovely as we are."
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Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 10:14 am
Malus didn’t immediately look up from the calendar, and it was only when Lysithea tucked hers safely away in subspace that he did the same. Adria had followed suit at some point, but he seemed a bit distracted and his cheeks were pink because of something as silly as Lysithea saying they were all pretty.
Which was probably ridiculous, it’s just, he wasn’t used to anyone saying something nice like that. Even if it was just to boost team morale! He tugged the sash around his waist anyway, sheepishly covering his midriff again. He wished Kari was there, but in a way she was. Just, across the ocean. And she'd made it known that they had her support. He wished Monoceros were here. He’d have probably liked to be part of the naming. But then, they were still working on saving him. They’d get him back, too.
Distantly, he thought about Elpis, and Forte, and Subra.
…But, he hadn’t seen or heard from them since he’d gotten out of the hospital years ago. He pressed his lips together, and then worked to make a smile out of it.
That was a long time ago. Cambria might have kept in contact with them, but he didn’t know. There wasn’t any way to know now.
Phantasia was a fresh start. It was something they could make, together.
Adria smiled reassuringly at Varuna, and Lysithea.
Malus seemed in a good mood, himself. “I’m surprised you’d call me a charming Knight." He didn't think he was charming or Knightly. "I’m going to tell Michel he’s got competition. I’m good with whatever you think feels right, Lysithea.” He hadn’t ever really cared about what they were called before, but he’d come in later than she and Adria had. He was just happy to be here, and happy to see Lysithea looking so excited.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 9:48 pm
Lysithea smiled brightly and nodded, reaching her hand out to the other four and looking pleased. “Phantasia it is, then. A new beginning and a new life for our court. We’ll figure everything out, and we’ll do it together…I…I want to ask for your help with a situation that I’ve been tasked with assisting…I thought that since before…since before the court could save youma, that maybe we could do more. That we could…I mean. That we could eradicate chaos in some way, more than…or in a different way than people like Cosmos can.”
She hesitated, eyes flickering to Ilse for a moment, the memory of what she had been told about Cosmos simply not showing up when they had tried to help Ilse purify before everything had happened…but.
“I want us to help someone. His name is Alastor, and he’s a senshi that’s come to Earth from Space, there’s some kind of Chaos affecting his homeworld and he’s been asking for assistance with getting rid of it before it completely consumes the place…Soleiyu has been helping, and Alastor has said that the battle or the attempt to free his planet from the Chaos will happen soon…within the next few weeks…and I hope that we can all go. That we can all help him…that…that’s just my goal…”
For a moment, Lysithea faltered and shrugged, chewing her lip. “I just want to help those who need it. And if we can do something as a team, if we can turn the tides…if we can make a difference…I hope that we will.”
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Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2022 6:14 pm
Lysithea’s enthusiasm was a little overwhelming, but Varuna kept her mouth shut and remained where she was. They’d decided on a name, and they were already planning to help others.
The name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. Maybe it was someone associated with her aunt or… she was thinking of someone else.
She nodded silently in agreement, but also glanced over at Adria and relaxed a little. He was always so friendly but also so shy. But if Adria could get used to Lysithea, then she supposed she just needed some time to warm up as well. She had nothing against her, she just needed to recharge after too many words.
And she hoped that at least Adria knew that her silence wasn’t meant to be offensive.
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