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 Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 9:14 pm
Quote: The Calling (12) : A beautiful melody drifts on the air from somewhere far away. The vocals are in a language you don’t quite recognize, but feel somehow familiar to you. Something about the song calls to you, but no matter where you go, the song seems to sound the same distance away. The longer it goes on, the more emotional the song becomes--and the more emotional you become. Something about the song is possessive and consuming, like it’s all you can think of. Something resonates in you as the song crescendos, and the feeling is at its strongest--be they good, bad, anything, but suddenly the song fades, and there’s only an emptiness inside of you. The feeling of loss is strong, and can leave someone feeling emotionally numb. Someone out there was calling to you, and you couldn’t find them. Beta Leporis would be lying to herself if she said that she wasn't slowly losing hope. Every day that passed was another with no information at best, and another dead end at the most agonizing worst. No one had seen hide nor hair of a rabbit-like youma, or if they had then they were lying and well... she couldn't very well fault them, could she? Who among the ranks would ever tell her the truth? If they spoke to her at all, that was. Mostly they just attacked her... well... attacked her back. She wasn't proud of it, but she usually threw the first punch. Ironically, Alpha would probably have a good long laugh about that. And sometimes, Beta could swear that she heard her. Christ, maybe her shrink was wrong, and she really was losing it. Maybe she was slowly falling behind the curve of reality and sinking into madness. Served her right, she supposed. A kind of sick karmic comeuppance for the way she'd unfairly punished her sister... Because, evidently, losing her sister to the very thing that nearly took her the first time years ago wasn't enough ironic vengeance for the universe. No, it had to drive Beta insane in the aftermath. Had to have her clinging to hope as it slipped through her fingertips, knowing that she could do nothing to stop it as it circled the drain. It didn't escape Beta that this was the first night that week that she'd been out searching. And it didn't escape her that the previous week she hadn't been out at all. And it also didn't escape her that Beta was still searching an area that she'd searched a million times before; the site of the battle where she'd lost her. Like maybe Alpha would return to it one day and... and... And what? Of course, she could make excuses, like her university classes, her family asking her to family dinners and activities, and even her own fatigue but... just last year she had run herself absolutely ragged in her search. This year... this year... Beat cuffed at her eyes, ignoring the realization that had been plaguing her for months now. She turned her back on the site of the battle, almost as though she could physically turn away from her impending reality. She was halfway down the hill before the sound of a song finally registered in her ears. The music was the first thing that she recognized on the air, the words sounding strange and garbled in the air. At first, Beta assumed that she was simply trying to pinpoint the words themselves, like when she first turned on a radio and for a split second it doesn't sound like english. It was another instant before she realized that it wasn't english at all. It was a different language, one she couldn't name, and yet it sounded so familiar. Perhaps a cover of a song she knew in english? No, that wasn't quite right, because she also couldn't pinpoint the actual melody of the song. Whatever it was... it sounded... sad... Because the universe, evidently, wasn't done ******** with her. Grand. Beta turned to leave, poised towards the lights of the city instead of the dark of further fields, her heart heavy with the sound of the song on the wind, but something in her turned her back around and set her down the path towards the sound itself. Down towards that dark path into grass and flowers. Dark enough that only moon and starlight guided her. Hope was fleeting and it was fading but... the song sounded so sad. So alone and so frightened... Hope was a fragile thing but it sprung eternal and maybe... just maybe... Beta's steps picked up, trying to chase the sound of a song that never seemed to get any closer or another father away. Quickened steps broke into a run, her pace staggered on the uneven ground until... the sound stopped. It stopped and left something strange and hollow in Beta's chest, drawing a wrecked kind of sob from deep within her before she could cover her mouth to stop it. The song had stopped and Beta was alone. Alone. In the dark. Still without her sister.
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Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2023 7:45 pm
It wasn't often that Psilomelane dwelt on what once was and wasn't any longer, for she fully understood the futility of it. There was enough to do as a part of the Negaverse that she always had a ready distraction, be it a new personal assignment or a quota to gather or someone new to meet among the ranks. There was no shortage of people to help, people to save, or people to steer toward the Negaverse and a better version of themselves. Thus, she never wanted for a distraction.
She lost track of how long it had been since she had forgotten everything — since her past ceased to matter to her and anyone else around her. Despite what she'd been told, no one seemed to know Pavo at all: no White Moon senshi, no Dark Mirror senshi, and certainly no one among the Negaverse. It was as if she ceased to be in everyone's mind, not just her own.
But that never seemed to matter when it came to the Negaverse. People accepted her as she was, or hated her for it. and she had to keep going nonetheless. As time wore on, she made new friends. She made new enemies. She made new memories, too.
The old ones were gone. She had nothing to fear from them. Even the events that culminated in those memories seemed to simply fade from existence, for no one remembered her from anything. It was fine. Welcome, even.
Until nights like tonight, when the sound of a wordless melody she couldn't place awoke a feeling of nostalgia and deja vu so powerful that Psilomelane couldn't ignore it any longer. Like a siren song promising the answer to all those lost years, or a cathartic conclusion that would put them out of the Super's mind for good, she felt compelled to pay attention to it. Even if it was nothing, even if it was an ambush, Psilomelane had to trust it — had to follow it to its conclusion, whatever and wherever that might be.
And by doing so, she encroached on a single White Moon senshi that stood as still as stopped time about a block ahead of her. Surely enough, as Psilomelane closed the distance on her, that ethereal, monstrously familiar melody fragmented and scattered like so much noise on the wind. With it went that thready hopefulness that she didn't know she was still nursing. A tenuous excitement that hadn't yet been extinguished, despite that it could no longer kindle even the faintest heat.
But she couldn't let the chase die here so easily. "Excuse me," she forced out, sounding wooden, "Did you hear a voice just now?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2023 1:30 pm
If Beta Leporis physically jumped at voice behind her... that was her business and no one else's. She recovered easily and turned, schooling her face away from the sorrow of the less of the music and the startle from the sudden intrusion on that loss. She was mourning, after all, and someone had the lack of grace to intrude upon that. Moreover, the acrid sense of chaos washed over her, alerting her to added threat. And Beta was alone. She was alone and still whirling from a loss that she had suffered so long ago and had yet been ripped open like a brand new wound. Ripped her open so wide that she had to cross her arms over her chest lest she split fully in two. Then again, maybe she deserved it. "Um... um yes..." she answered after a moment, trying to wipe the moisture from her eyes are surreptitiously as possible. "Yes, I... I heard it. But it's um... it's gone now. She's gone now..." Were she not so compromised... were she not teetering on the edge of despair, Beta might not have said anything. She might have hissed at the other senshi to shut up and mind their own business. She might have even demanded to know if she'd seen a rabbit-like youma or accused her of trapping her. She might have even attacked without preamble. But instead her voice and her shoulders trembled with he weight of her sins and her failures, wondering if... maybe if she'd been faster... if she'd not turned to leave and insead pressed ahead without hesitation... if she had done something... would she have found the source of the voice? Would she have found her sister? "I um... I don't supposed you had anything to do with that, did you? Or maybe... know who did? A rabbit, perhaps?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2023 6:50 pm
"Who's gone now?" Psilomelane asked without thinking. It was clear, afterward, that this senshi had lost someone important to her. Why else mention it? It wasn't as if Psilomelane had sensed someone else nearby that ran off once they felt her chaotic aura.
The question that came afterward gave her pause, and Psilomelane tried to review the events she experienced prior to her arrival. She didn't have anything to do with the voice that she knew of. Nor did Psilomelane see any rabbits at all; it was rare to see any rabbits in the city, even youma rabbits. And Psilomelane hadn't run across a youma rabbit before. She'd heard stories, though.
"I'm sorry, I had nothing to do with it. I'm afraid I don't know who did, and I haven't seen any rabbits, either." Which meant, essentially, she was useless to this other senshi.
But perhaps not completely. "I can help you search. This rabbit — can you tell me about it? Is it a regular rabbit or a youma?" That seemed one of the more important answers to discern. A regular rabbit would be much too difficult to find in the streets of DC, but a rabbit youma? Psilomelane could contact one of the other agents and have them try to summon this youma, or they could search the city for a youma aura.
It would keep her mind off of her past life, too, as this senshi didn't seem to know her. It was easier, then, to be in the moment with a current goal and a stranger for company. Even if that stranger was White Moon.
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2023 5:52 pm
The question went in one side of Beta's head and then out the other. She stared at the other woman like she was uncertain of what she was seeing. Like the other woman had suddenly appeared in front of her in that moment and it was Beta's first moment ever seeing someone other than herself. It took her a moment of silent staring before she came back to herself, shaking her head as though she could physically shed the haze of confusion and sorrow that had settled over her. And even then, she opened and closed her mouth several times before she was able to stammer out an answering, "M-my... my sister..." And where Beta more herself, more in her right mind, she wouldn't be saying this. Wouldn't be divulging information like this but... somehow the chaos filling her mouth with the taste of metal didn't matter. Not with the whole yawning open in her chest at the possibility of being so close to Alpha and then losing her. Again. "She's a youma," Beta sighed softly, wrapping her arms around her core to try and keep herself from shuddering apart. "No one seems to have seen her. It's like... like she just... blipped out of existence... I've been looking for almost to years now." Why was she still talking? It was like now that she'd started the dam was broken. The shock of her hope being so totally shattered put the first crack in the wall, and then she spoke and it was all over. A sob tore itself out of her chest and she only barely got it covered and bit back in time. "She could be dead for all I know..."
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Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2023 9:34 am
This senshi's sister was a youma. She understood that. It was something that could happen to anyone, including herself, depending on the circumstances. She supposed it should have struck her as horrible, given the way this senshi responded. But Psilomelane didn't think much of youma, didn't know any youma — didn't know enough about youma to determine whether they loathed their existences as youma, the way many people did, or if they didn't think much of their existential state either.
But one thing did stand out to her: the girl before her must have known even less about youma than she did, for she was afraid that her sister-turned-youma might be dead. She understood that there was a callousness that came with trying to correct facts when confronted with grief, but in this instance, it might be welcome knowledge.
"Even when a youma is dusted," she began, carefully, "They do come back. I don't know how long it takes or what goes into the process, but I know this to be true. If something happened to your sister, she might need some time before she comes back." However long that may be.
Psilomelane toyed idly with the coins on her skirts as she continued, trying to be reassuring but feeling hollow about it. "I think there's a lot of people, on both sides, who don't think much of youma. They wouldn't necessarily notice what youma they're dusting or giving orders to, as it were. And there are many youma, too; I don't know how often you've run into the same youma multiple times, but I can say that the most I've seen the same youma is maybe three times." But, again, she was one of many who didn't spend a terrible lot of time staring at youma. The one that she had seen multiple times was recognized because it had been an officer's youma.
"But I'm part of the Negaverse, so I have a lot more access to youma."
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