She was calling out for him the moment she entered the house. It wasn’t strange for her to be here, now. Ignacio might have come through the worst of being triggered, but Sadie had only half left living with him.
There was a bed here for her now, not just the couch. There was a box of things with her name on it, of blankets and pillows and clothes. Nobody blinked these days when she walked through the door.
It wasn’t as normal for her to come in sounding concerned, though.
It was only the third or fourth time in years that she’s come in with a new scar. The mark was angry red and forked like lightning across her neck and chest,until it vanished beneath her off the shoulder shirt. Her hair was puffed up from static.
“I, um, got hit by lightning,” she told him, rubbing at the mark as she found him in the living room.
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2023 12:14 am
"Sadie?"
Hearing the concern in her voice made Ignacio put down his phone--and the schedule his agent made for him--and sit up a little straighter. Did she run into something bad? It wasn't bad enough for her to reach out to him without leaving where she was, so she hadn't crossed paths with Faustite--Encke was still somewhere between nauseous, livid, and baffled he was still alive and a general-sovereign of all ******** things--or anyone similar, at least.
What he wasn't expecting, though, was what she said next, and his brows rose to his hairline.
She looked like she had been hit with an extra large dose of his static aura, or maybe some senshi magic-- it took him no time at all to rise and come over to where she was, his reflexes as a civilian unusually fast in general. "Are you alright?" The mark looked angry, but she was clearly still standing. "Your heart rate is doing alright, right? It didn't hit you near your lungs?"
The path of the mark hinted that it might have--
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Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2023 7:10 pm
Her lungs?
Sadie’s fingers traced from near her ear down towards where her neck met her collarbone, where she could feel the center of the impact, the center of the spiderweb of a welt. “I think it hit near a lot of important things,” she murmured, brows close together. She hadn’t looked, but she was sure the marks continued across her chest, over her heart, over her lungs, over her starseed. “But I feel okay. I can breathe.”
The breaths might be coming a little quickly, but that was from nerves, and those were getting better now that she was here.
“It felt more like magic than anything,” she told him. “Um,” there wasn’t an easy way to talk about this, so her eyes traced the ground as she said, “Like your magic.”
She didn’t like thinking about that moment, and she did her best not to dwell on it.
“Not as bad as what happened with Caedus,” she said. “Not as bad as what real lightning would be like, I don’t think. It looks awful, but,” she shrugged, “What’s another mark at this point?”
Her eyes were empty as she ran a thumb across the pockmarked scars on her hand. Her smile was heavy.
The air around her crackled with static.
“And I thought I’d check with you, since you know these things.”
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 5:58 am
It was good that she could breathe, at least. Meant that whatever it was had probably not been as serious as it ultimately looked, though he was uncertain what could have caused it that would have left that serious of a path despite that...
Oh, magic. Magic like his. There was a moment of pride at the memory of just how much his magic could hurt, but it just as easily buried itself at the remembrance that it was Pendour they were talking about, and they weren't just someone who deserved that--like Faustite, for example, he reflected as the thought of the new general-sovereign burned in his heart for just a moment. But he was getting distracted, too distracted, and he came back to his mind in short order to look at the way the air around her seemed to buzz.
Her hair looked like it was rising just a bit.
"Caedus' lightning was pretty awful," he murmured, though he had to admit, perhaps he had an unfair advantage there considering how much his own magic had hurt to use in the earlier years. "Did a chaotic senshi hit you with their magic or something?"
He wasn't used to those effects sticking around terribly long, granted. The pain, yes, the marks, yes, but the static?
"I'm sure it'll fade off as the static goes down a bit." Well. Probably. "Do you need a heal?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 6:23 pm
Had it been a senshi? Sadie squinted, trying to remember. It wasn't like she'd been looking up, or looking behind her. She had just felt the impact across her skin.
"I don't think so, but maybe? I was powered down, it wasn't like there were auras." A second passed, and she muttered, quieter, "And it wasn't like I could see."
It was easier for her to miss things like that, being half blind the way she was. Her good eye traced the line where the wall met the floor, now, not quite wanting to look back up at Ignacio.
She rubbed at the mark some more when he offered the healing. It didn't hurt, but she didn't like the way it felt a little bumpy under her fingers. At this point, she had enough scars that another shouldn't have mattered, but it bothered her, all the same.
"Could you try it?" she asked. "It might help."
The static around her didn't seem to calm.
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2023 4:57 am
Would a corrupt senshi attack a defenseless civilian?
He wasn't sure why he was questioning that. Plenty of them would kill defenseless civilians by taking their starseed in the first place. Perhaps some of them liked to play with their food, as it were.
Perhaps literally.
Ignacio shuddered at the mental reminder as he pulled his pen out from his pocket, rolling it around in his fingers as he adopted the guise that belonged to Sailor Encke, instead. "I'll see what I can do, at least, no matter what caused this." Even if it was a rogue a*****e corrupt senshi, or dark mirror senshi, or an order senshi who for some reason didn't know how to aim-- or just magic. It was the most magical time of year in this city.
Unfortunately.
He focused on his own magic instead of that, striving to help stem something as he channeled his healing toward what was making her hair stand on end.
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Based on plasma medicine, Encke presses his hands toward his target, generating a current with a mild heat which will feel hot but will not burn. This heat is accompanied by a small amount of light. As this current travels from him into his target, it will completely heal minor injuries and moderate wounds (such as bleeding or abrasions) can somewhat stitch themselves back together and have improved healing. This magic may have some success temporarily stabilizing more serious injuries, but at best it can only stop them from worsening for a short time. Allies injured in the nearby vicinity may also feel this effect. (Usage: Twice per battle Duration: 30 seconds Range: 10ft radius around target)
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 7:29 pm
Sadie watched as Encke powered up, even here in his own space. It wasn't what she'd been expecting, but it would be okay, she thought, if they were fast about it. She stepped forwards.
She couldn't help the way that she flinched when she saw the way that Encke's hands were reaching out to her, with light at their fingertips that she knew came from his plasma. He was gentle, though, and she trusted him with nearly everything.
His hands were only warm, not burning, but just as she was starting to relax into that feeling, the electric magic that was still in her own body reacted to whatever he was doing. It flared. Static crackled off of her fingertips, off of her hair, which puffed up even more, like it was almost floating.
It was enough that Encke would almost certainly be able to feel it.
"Sorry-" she murmured, more confused than anything else with an edge of worry creeping into it.
The mark did turn from angry red to pink, but it didn't fade completely.
The corners of her mouth turned down as she looked down. "This is how it goes for me, isn't it?" she sighed. "I know you've got your own past, but I still don't understand how you keep your skin so nice."
She hated her own, these days.
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2023 8:16 pm
Seeing her relax was nice. Maybe his magic was helping her with something--
That was a lot of electricity, and he immediately wished that he could channel like a knight and could pull his magic. What the hell was hurting Pendour? If his healing magic was causing it to react and burst out more, had it gotten inside her somehow? Could magic really stick like that?
... Evidently yes...
"No, that's okay! Not your fault. We didn't know my magic would make you even more staticy..." Although the redness had gone down, which was good to see. It was too bad he couldn't give it another shot and see if it would fully head it off, but he had a feeling that wouldn't really help...
The mention of his skin, though, brought a smile to his face.
"Skincare, honestly. Part of being an actor is very good at things like face creams and moisturizer and cleanser and dermatology things." His fingers ghosted over the back of his other hand. "I also use some pretty intensive scar creams. It helps ease that too."
Though it didn't need to be expensive to work, if she wanted to he could start pulling some things aside that he thought it'd be worth trying. Maybe he could work on it with her...
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2023 2:21 am
Sadie stepped away from Encke for a moment, gathering up her hair in both hands and trying to push or wring some of the electricity out. It worked a little, dropping her hair closer to its normal shape, but she could still hear the crackling of static when she moved her head.
Skincare.
That made sense if she thought about it. He made money off of his face, so of course he'd want to do what he could to make sure it was in good condition.
"Well, it works," she told him. "You look nice." Sadie was an artist. She appreciated beautiful things, and she'd known for a long time that he fit that category.
Sadie had a bottle or two of things in her own bathroom. She had basic moisturizers, and there was a tube of that scar cream. She'd used it maybe once or twice in all those years, and certainly not right after she'd lost the eye and laid facedown in her couch for a year.
Her lips pressed into a line, her face full of that tension that had been there so often lately.
"I have trouble finding the energy to eat half the time when I'm not here," she admitted. It was worse when things got bad. Things had been bad again, with Faustite, although at least when she stayed here, people were bringing her food. "Or, um, brushing my teeth. Showering."
It wasn't something she often talked about, but she knew it wasn't like there needed to be secrets between them.
"If I can start managing that, maybe then I can move on to something like lotions."
She might be able to fade the scars on her arms. Those ones weren't as bad.
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2023 7:36 am
His smile at the compliment to his looks was wide and genuine, and actually made it to his eyes. "Thank you. I'm glad to hear it's reflecting well." The facial care had been one thing, the athleticism was another -- it was in part self-care, but it was also in part keeping up appearances. His face was his brand.
Encke couldn't necessarily afford it not to be-
Realizing that there was no use in him remaining Encke in the middle of the house, he went ahead and dropped back down to civilian form as Sadie talked. And she was talking about something very deep, and very important.
And very...
Familiar.
"For what it's worth," Ignacio offered a sympathetic lop-sided smile. "I also used to be bad at that stuff before I moved in here. Moved into an apartment where I went to a shitty job on autopilot and didn't really take care of myself beyond the most basic needs to sustain myself. It's taken a lot to get here."
And in some ways, he still lapsed into the worst of it. Without Sadie and Richard and Luke and Safira around, it was arguable he would have recently when his mind was giving him nothing but unpleasant memories and the occasional hallucination.
He checked his hands.
He breathed.
"One of the things that helped me get on track with that kind of thing--besides having family and friends--later boyfriend--who were watching me? I started setting reminders as a way to check in on if I've done something. If I ignored that, I got a couple people who would occasionally check on me over text. Recommendation from my therapist."
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Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2023 6:52 pm
It made Sadie’s brows press together to hear that Ignacio had gone through some of the same issues as she had, but it wasn’t really a surprise. They were PTSD buddies. They’d fist bumped over it, back when Sadie had gotten her diagnosis figured out.
It was nice, having someone who understood.
“Alarms wouldn’t work,” she told him. It wasn’t that she forgot things, mostly. Now and then she lost track of time, staring at the ceiling, but it was more common for her be aware of what she should be doing, and sitting there for hours anyway, not doing it.
“You could text me, maybe,” she said, before she could think better of it, but then a moment later the lines between her brows went deeper.
“But what do I say back, if I’m not okay?”
The obvious answer here was to just tell him. It wasn’t like they were supposed to be keeping secrets from each other, anyway, but the thought still made her chest tighten.
What did she tell him if she wasn’t okay because she was trying to protect him from a situation like Faustite?
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