Finally, there was some nice weather tonight. Lete had to thank some kind of lucky star for that, she supposed. All the rain that had gone around lately, she really didn’t appreciate it very much. Made it so difficult to get enough energy for the Mirror if people insisted on staying inside because, eugh, it was raining and they didn’t feel like getting wet or, like, whatever. A bunch of very fair complaints, Lete couldn’t very well deny, but damn if they didn’t terribly inconvenience her when all she really wanted was to do her job, and drain energy like she was supposed to, and not go throwing herself into combat silliness like Murikabushi seemed content to ******** weird, how much he insisted on caring about business that he had every universal permission to just ignore.
Either way, without him and his strange, inexplicable (to Lete personally) collection of Order-favoring sympathies around to make sad sparkly eyes about ethics or whatever, Lete had contentedly set up shop in one of her favorite parks around the DCU campus. Even with the more high-traffic academic terms being over until autumn, enough people were taking summer courses that Lete and any Mirrorwraiths she summoned had a steady stream of energy-sheep to shear ever so slightly and with much gratitude. After sending out the fourth wraith she’d called up tonight—and giving it the same instruction as she’d given the three previous ones: only pass through somebody once, take a little bit of energy from a lot of people, rather than getting someone until they pass out—Lete kicked back on her picnic table and resumed reading the book she’d brought with her tonight.
She didn’t really get what the fuss was supposed to be about This Is How You Lose The Time War, but: A. no time like now to figure out; and B. how was she supposed to ignore a book recommendation by someone calling themself “Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood”?
Dark Mirror senshi were complicated. Kaifeng hadn’t learned everything about them since that night over by Augusta Bank, with all the fighting and explosions and Pendour sweeping him—and well, he supposed that could be expected. An entire faction of senshi in this magical war over the fate of the Earth, Kaifeng could hardly presume to learn everything there was to know about them in only a couple weeks. But as he’d learned it, they were complicated: Chaos-aligned, definitely, but not usually as hostile as the Negaverse tended to be. They didn’t have their own form of youma, not really (Mirrorwraiths, apparently, but while they did drain energy, they were apparently somewhat different from youma like the kind that Kaifeng was getting increasingly used to tussling with). And apparently, they tended to be quite open to hearing reason.
The sight of so many people around the park seeming rather out of it, though…… That didn’t bode very well. Or anyway, Kaifeng didn’t feel like it did. If he’d felt any youma or Negaverse auras lurking around, maybe he would’ve felt less uneasy. Negaverse auras plus increasingly out of it people was a fairly straightforward situation.… But the closest aura that Kaifeng felt nearby had the Dark Mirror feel to it, deeper and calmer than whatever Negaverse auras thought they were doing, but no less serious and no less dangerous.… Eugh, Kaifeng rather hoped that he wouldn’t have to risk letting down any of his new friends who liked the Dark Mirror senshi alright—but when he followed the aura, he spotted a Dark Mirror senshi on a picnic table, holding up something that looked like a piece of a broken mirror and smiling as something else dove into that surface.
Something that looked like a ghost made out of shattered glass.
Then, the senshi seemed to speak to something else, except Kaifeng couldn’t see anything there except for the senshi themself.… That tracked, he guessed, with Mirrorwraiths being more intangible than not, or whatever their deal was supposed to be.
Biting back on a sigh of disappointment, Kaifeng crept up behind the Mirror senshi and rapped his fan against their shoulder.
“Oh, what the <********> Lete groused, rolling her eyes at the interjection into her Peaceful Reading While The Mirrorwraith Works time, and at the audacity of someone with one of those offensively bleached out Order auras doing the thing in question. As she turned around, though, her grumpiness at the interruption turned to dead shock. “Okay, now, really what the ********, though! How are you even walking right now?”
……Well, of all the possible responses that Kaifeng had thought to expect, that had definitely not been one of them. Blinking at the little Mirror senshi a bit vacantly, he tilted his head. “……Have we met before?” Kaifeng personally rather doubted it? Sure, he could forget a lot of things if he didn’t stay on top of himself with various alerts on his phone, and his list-making, and all kinds of stuff? But he didn’t usually think of himself as somebody to forget a person. Sure, he’d done it in his time, but, like……he TRIED not to, and that had to count for something, right?? “……Rudeness not intended by the way, I just—? Feel like I would have remembered you?”
“Well, no,” Lete sighed, slouching already because talking to this guy felt sooooo tedious. “We didn’t meet each other exactly, but like—?” Huffing, she waved a hand at the thin air before her. “I saw you. Me and one of the other Mirror senshi. We were there for that dust-up at the bank, and we saw you getting stabbed.” She pointed at the fan in his hand. “What the Hell were you thinking, trying to fight a Negaverse General with that rinky-dink little thing?”
Kaifeng pouted, wrinkling his nose like a bunny who’d just been told that the Internet had lied to them about the Fall Out Boy reunion tour. “My fan isn’t rinky-dink,” he protested, flipping it open and holding it so the Mirror senshi could see the painting of his Wonder. “Anyway,” he went on while fluttering his fan a bit, “I don’t know if you can give back all the energy you’ve been draining or whatever? But look around the park. I think you’ve taken enough and I’m gonna have to ask you to stop.”
Letting her eyes slip closed and rocking back ever-so-slightly, Lete groaned. VERY loudly. “What the Hell is wrong with all you sanctimonious weirdos, okay? Everybody’s got a job to do and this one just so happens to be mine. And seriously, it’s not like anybody’s getting hurt or anything. Let them take a nap and they’ll be fine!”
Noir Songbird_
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:52 am
There was a fuss coming from the park.
Daedalus had found himself lurking around the Destiny City University campus--if he was honest, the prospect of a formal Earth education sounded incredible to him, but he was well aware that there were quite a few barriers to getting one. Perhaps Julienne could work up the forms to get him in, to pretend that Soren Blythe was a real person who existed on Earth, but apparently there was a financial cost steep enough that when Soren had mentioned it idly, George had just shaken his head and patted his shoulder and said "son, you're more than smart enough, but the loans just aren't worth it. Saw what it did to my grandkids, don't want to see what it'll do to you."
Locking education behind exorbitantly high costs reminded Soren far too much of home. All the bad parts of home.
But still,h e found himself idling around the campus, as if he could magically absorb the knowledge being imparted within. And when he'd felt a Dark Mirror aura nearby, he'd frowned. It was weaker than Murikabushi's, which meant it was not his friend, and it was distinctly likely that it might be a member of his Court more inclined to cause problems, so he'd approached.
And that was when he'd heard whatever disagreement was happening between the Dark Mirror and someone who had to be the other aura pinging his senses. A Knight--well, a Page, properly.
When he approached, he spotted the two of them by the picnic table, straightened, and strode over, just in time to hear the Page's demand and the Dark Mirror's complaint.
"I'm afraid I have to agree," Daedalus said, and he prepared ot call on his magic if she was stubborn. "I'm going to have to ask that you return what you've taken. It isn't yours to steal."
The feeling of another Order aura incoming made Lete already inclined to start groaning and grousing about how monumentally! unfair! this entire situation was!! Why did these people always gang up on honest, hard-working Mirror senshi who JUST wanted to borrow a little bit of energy because their Mirror needed it!!!
“Ugggggggh, it doesn’t even work that way, you nosy assholes!” Screwing up her face in a Very Serious Pout, she glared at the new senshi who’d come to join her and the weird little Baby Knight. Okay, so he had horns and his teeth looked kinda pointy, but that didn’t obligate Lete to pretend she was impressed or anything. “Once the wraith goes back in the mirrorshard, the energy doesn’t come back, like? Duh?” Illustrating what she meant, Lete held up the mirrorshard, but before either of them could get any funny ideas, she stashed it in her subspace. The last thing she wanted to do tonight was to have to call the Prince she hadn’t even met yet to beg for a new mirrorshard because some interloping jerks went and broke it.
“Anyway,” she went on, because truly, there wasn’t any sense in digging a grave halfway when, apparently, Demeter was the only person on the entire White Moon side who understood anything about anything, “for one thing? It’s, like, proper allocation of resources, actually? Mirrorspace needs energy so we can keep it working and make it sustainable. You know, so people could, like, live there? So they can go somewhere safe and not get utterly obliterated when you jerks decide to start some nonsense with the Negaverse, or if some gross corporate assholes doom us all to die from climate change!
“So, Mirrorspace needs the energy. Humans have lots of energy, and—in case you haven’t noticed—the s**t grows back. Hello, it’s perpetually renewable? But like, since we have the greatest need here, and since things should be all ‘to each according to their need’ and stuff, like, yeah? Obviously? We gotta drain people. It’s, like, basic logic?
“And for a second thing!” Lete pointed at the senshi with the horns. “Do you even go to this planet? What do you care how Earth senshi handle problems that are on Earth?”
“Hey!” Kaifeng frowned, flicking his fan closed again. Once he had it secure, he reached over and bopped the Mirror senshi on the nose with it. Got a little whine out of her, which annoyed him more than making him feel any kind of satisfied. “First of all, that’s not how anything you’re talking about works, from the magic to the misappropriated political ********, Kaifeng didn’t even consider his own knowledge of socialism, Communism, other similar -ism’s with minds about reallocating resources, and so on to be particularly deep (mostly because he knew full well that it wasn’t), and he certainly didn’t know as much as he could’ve known about the magical aspects of it all……but even he knew that she was using those words incorrectly and spinning the situation so hard, it would’ve given an actual poli-sci major some ******** nausea.
“Secondly,” he added, pausing to give her another disciplinary whap on the nose, “you want to apologize to him? Whether or not he’s from Earth originally doesn’t matter, meimei. He’s here now, so of course what happens on this planet matters to him. Plus, like he said?” Kaifeng shrugged, and gestured toward a civilian trudging along behind the Mirror senshi. With the molasses-slow way they moved, he would’ve bet money that one of her Mirrorwraiths had gotten to them. “You’re draining energy that isn’t yours to drain, and maybe it does come back, but you’re still hurting people right now. Caring about that is just called being a decent person.”
Noir Songbird
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 1:27 am
Daedalus felt a surge of twin emotions.
Number one: he liked this Knight very much. Good head on his shoulders, very brave, clearly cared a lot about his world and the people on it, even if he wasn't a Knight of Earth. (Purple, red, thoroughly elegant, and--yes, there it was, the symbol of Saturn. One of the Knights of the planet of Death; a respectable, if odd, group.) Generally, this Page seemed to know exactly what was important, and he was willing to put it into action.
Two: he really, really did not like this particular Dark Mirror Senshi. He didn't need to hear the Page's confirmation that whatever nonsense she was spewing was wildly misinterpreted--even if he didn't recognize the exact context, he could guess, and he seriously doubted that whatever thinker she was quoting had meant that you sohuld steal to fill whatever needs you thought you had. Also? This was the second time recently he'd been told to go back to his planet, and he was getting really tired of it.
"My planet is dead," Daedalus said, sharply, "and this world is my home now. Besides, why shouldn't I care? People here need help, and protection from people like you. Parasites that seek to drain them to enrich yourselves."
Wealthy bastards hoarding their money; Chaos stealing energy; it was all the same in the end.
"So if you can't give it back, you're going to have ot leave. Progress On."
His magic leapt from his fingers, and he was grateful that, today, it seemed to have decided to cooperate.
Quote:
Daedalus speaks the name of his attack, and enemies within a 6 foot radius are suddenly overwhelmed by visions of progress of some kind—social, technological, any kind is possible. These visions are crammed into about 10 seconds, and when they fade, they leave the targets disoriented as they try to parse through what they just saw. The disorientation lingers for about 20 seconds, but can remain longer at player discretion. Daedalus can use this attack three times per battle.
Well, if anybody asked her about it, Lete thought that she had made a perfectly sound and valid argument about Why You Should Support Your Local Dark Mirror Senshi, Actually. The fact that she had thoroughly misinterpreted concepts from Marx that she’d only partially understood in the first place did not register to her at all, because it would have required her to be aware that her understanding of the theory she’d misappropriated had more holes in it than fishnet tights. Everything that the dragon-antler-having senshi and the weird little knight were saying passed through her ears without really settling in her brain enough for her to process, and only barely managing to avoid sounding like the “whaw whaw whaaawww whaww whaaaaawwww whaw” Adult Speak voice from the Peanuts cartoon.
—Then, came the magic.
It hit Lete like a teenager on an out of control skateboard, slamming into her with a vision of Demeter being cute, the way that she was always cute. And giggling, the way that she did, which was also Always Cute. And swishing around in her fuku, which was no longer white, but black and lovely, with a gauzy overlay down the bodice in the same pretty shade of purple as her thigh-highs. And she giggled so cutely as she swished her skirt around her beautiful legs, smiling like sunshine and asking “How do I look?”—without thinking that this had to be the magic working her over, Lete told the vision, “Perfect, Deme……you look so perfect……” and it must have been the right thing to say, because Demeter leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed Lete on the mouth so well, Lete’s legs went all jello-y even though she was sitting down.
But when she reached out to touch Demeter’s face, everything went away.
Popped, and dissipated like morning mist.
“What, but……” Making a disconsolate, throaty little noise, Lete tried to grab at the spot where Demeter’s face had just been not even two seconds previously!!! “But, but, but, noooo……” Again and again and again, she came up empty-handed, because there was no Demeter there, and certainly not a version of Demeter who’d come over to the correct team. “Give it back,” Lete sniffled. Finally, enough times of not being able to stroke the cute girl’s face got through to her. Another miserable noise creaked out of her as Lete flopped over onto the table, and even though it kept proving hopeless, she kept grabbing at the thin air, hoping for Demeter to come back to her. “Give it baaaack……”
Getting to watch the magic from senshi and more powerful knights at work was always a treat for Kaifeng. So much to learn! And even though he didn’t entirely understand what was happening with the magic this dragon senshi had used on the Mirror senshi, he could discern enough to know that gege must’ve had powerful magic. Impressed, Kaifeng gave a low whistle, then snorted at the Mirror senshi’s piteous whining. “Not to use your own words against you, meimei,” he said, “but I don’t believe it works that way. Duh.”
Noir Songbird
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 2:16 am
Whatever his magic was showing this Dark Mirror, clearly it was something she wanted. Very, very badly. Daedalus's expression turned downward--he couldn't help but feel a little guilty, remembeirng how badly Langite's amgic had affected him and Murikabushi, and if this was anything like that for her....dramatics aside, it seemed unfortunate.
"Our Knight friend is right," Daedalus said, flatly. "That isn't how it works. And I suggest you clear out, or the next vision you have might not be nearly so nice."
Perhaps the threat of further violence would incentivize her to get out. Daedalus hoped so; he was already quite tired of this nonsense.
“Ugh, fine,” Lete whined, as the disorientation started fading, leaving her only with the sensation that someone was trying to carve her heart out with a dull, rusty ice cream scoop. Wobbling and on the verge of tears, she forced herself and her book up off the picnic table. “Have a nice night or whatever, I hope it sucks.”
With which, she excused herself—not quite running in the direction of a mirror, but definitely moving with an intent to get away from these freaks so she could go home, put on “slime-making tutorial” videos that were actually bootlegs from various Broadway shows, and not be anywhere near these Order freaks and their total lack of manners or fairness.
At least the Mirror senshi listened to the dragon senshi, this time. Once she’d gotten far enough away that coming back probably would’ve been a nuisance for her, Kaifeng turned to the other guy. With a warm smile, he held out his hand. “Kaifeng of Saturn,” he said brightly, “and if gege’s free? I’d love to treat you to coffee as thanks for the assist tonight?”
Noir Songbird
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 2:28 am
Daedalus watched the Dark Mirror retreat, and did feel a slight pang of guilt for whatever his magic had tugged at that affected her so badly. But, well. It had also been effective in running her off.
He waited, and then turned to take the Page's extended hand. "Sailor Daedalus, of Progress," he said, "and coffee sounds lovely."
At least, whatever else had happened, he'd managed to make another ally. That, he thought, was a win.
