[B] can't harvest this! [Demeter/Sakuraiite]

[genovianprince]

Demeter decided her life had been going rather well lately. Magically, she'd upgraded, which was super cool on like, so many levels?? Like, hello! More power!! Like she'd eaten one of those Mario mushrooms!! She felt really good about herself. And, she'd found that cool bag on her planet (and tried her very best not to think about the life that had ended for hers to begin, because oh God, if she thought about it too much she'd probably start crying and she really didn't need to cry, no sir). It was the cutest little thing, and from the memories she'd gotten about it, it was meant to be good for recovering nearly extinct plant species. The Sproutful bag would never be good enough for something like resetting an entire crop field's blight or something, but bit by bit, it would do a world or two of good in a different way, and that was just fine by her. She liked it that way. Simple was sometimes perfect as it was!

So she found herself in a pretty good mood despite the cold winter as she went on patrol, not really paying a whole lot of attention like she should have been.

Noir Songbird

 

[Noir Songbird]

Sakuraiite had determined, over her time as an officer,t hat she had a taste for blood. And for, more importantly, fear. She liked it when she had an enemy at her mercy, liked to toy with them, liked to make it as terrifying as possible.

And when an enemy seemed to be totally oblivious to her surroundings, well. That just made the whole thing so much easier.

She crept up, slowly and quietly, and when she was close enough, she did two things in quick succession: called upon her fear magic, and shoved her hand throguh the girl's back, wrapping her fingers around her starseed.

"You shouldn't be out all alone, silly Senshi," she said, and there was a playful lilt to her tone. "There are things that go bump in the night, that might want to harm someone who makes herself such an easy target."

She was, really, having the best possible time.

genovianprince

 

[genovianprince]

Demeter had only a fraction of a second to react when she heard the person coming up behind her, felt the aura of Negaverse—but that was not enough. Enough to gasp, maybe, but not enough to do anything with the sudden information of an impending attack. All she could do was wheeze as the spooky, sickly purple glow emanated from somewhere behind her, the fear spell gripping her heart just as much as the hand in her chest gripped her starseed. She trembled with the fear, a great deal of it not even being magical. God, she was so stupid. The stupidest. Her teeth chattered.

"Y-Yeah, we-well, last—last time I did this, I got a girlfriend out of it," she said, trying to laugh it off. "Maybe I'm—I'm looking for a harem?" Her voice ended in a squeak, face flooding red with embarrassment that made its way past the fear at the ridiculous notion. God. Why, oh why, was she so stupid!?

Noir Songbird

 

[Noir Songbird]

Oooh, this one wanted to bargain. The handsome dragon-man hadn't, hadn't really had time to beg or plead or anything; she'd been much more efficient with him, popping his starseed and preparing to go on her way, even if it hadn't really worked. But letting the Senshi run her mouth was at least providing Sakuraiite with some quality entertainment; she would take that, really.

"Is that so? You like girls in black, hmm?" She squeezed the Senshi's starseed, evaluating her. She was cute, maybe she'd be worth hauling back to be corrupted, and Sakuraiite could see what happened from there. "Unfortunately, I don't date do-gooders, so we'll have to get you to a general-Sovereign and fix that ugly white bodice of yours."

She really ought to wrap this up. Pop the starseed, teleport away. But the truth was, she was having far too good a time to let go this easily.

It had been a few days since Daedalus's unfortunate encounter with the strange, monstery Captain, where his starseed had been removed form his chest and returned to it only by the intervention of another Senshi. He'd been lucky; he easily could have been doomed to death or worse. (Because he wasn't naive; he'd bene totally unconscious, if she wanted to deliver him to whatever greater master she served, she easily could have, and who knew what could be waiting for him in Negaverse custody.)

He probably could have stood to take a few days off, but frankly, that wasn't really on his agenda. He'd noticed his lungs starting to get worse, the more time wore on--and that, for him, was a terrifying prospect. It meant there was a slowly ticking clock on his days, again; that his disease was worsening. He'd thought the progression might have slowed, on Earth, but....it seemed to be coming back with a vengeance. And that meant that he had to do as much as he could with whatever time he had left.

So he was out, patrolling. Ready to fight. Ready to protect the people of Earth. And he could feel two auras nearby--about the same rank, but no harm in going in and checking to see if someone needed a little backup.

As soon as he found them, Senshi and Captain, the same monster woman who had put her hand in his chest with her hand in someone else's--a rush of fury rose in his chest.

And this time, when he shouted "Progress Forward!", his magic leapt straight to his fingertips, bursting out of him in a cascade as powerful as his rage.

He would not allow this Captain to hurt someone else. Not tonight. Not ever.

The magic crashed into Sakuraiite like a freight train. Visions of an impossible future--technology she couldn't even begin to process, flying before her eyes at maximum speed. Her hand went slack in the Senshi's chest, and she staggered backwards, letting the girl go and gripping her head. It was all too much, all at once--even when it ended, she felt dizzy, like she could barely stay on her feet.

She wanted to look around and discover who was interfering, but--she just couldn't focus. Everything hurt.

genovianprince

 

[genovianprince]

Well, one particular girl in black, Demeter thought a bit hysterically. And if she were going to be forced into a Chaos faction, she'd rather serve the same dark master as Lete, at the very least, instead of corrupted into the Negaverse. Their goals would never align that way.

But luckily, she didn't have to think too much more about it, because someone... a very pretty dragon-like senshi seemed to appear out of nowhere, and he cast his magic on the half youma girl—she dropped Demeter's starseed, stumbled backwards, and Demeter lurched forwards in turn, whirling around to stare at the person who'd just nearly killed her for half a second before her brain came back online and—

She leaned forward and punched Sakuraiite across the face, just like Murikabushi had taught her. "And don't come back!" she yelled, feeling rather proud of herself.

Noir Songbird

 

[Noir Songbird]

The Senshi's fist contacted her face, and Sakuraiite staggered back, stunned. She blinked once, twice, confused and startled all at once, because apparently this dumb little Senshi who wandered all alone at night and didn't pay attention actually had a pretty solid right hook. And worse, it looked like that damned dragon man that she'd failed to kill before was the one who had come to help--and Sakuraiite did not feel like dealing with some kind of stupid vendetta.

Ugh. This whole thing was irritating as hell. What was it with her nights, lately? It felt like she was getting thwarted left, right and center (and even calling it "thwarting" felt ridiculous, she wasn't some two-bit Saturday morning cartoon villain!). But the reality was: she was outmatched, and the orange-haired Senshi's magic was a complete unknown.

She would have to be an idiot to stick around. She was not an idiot.

In an instant, she vanished.


It was an incredible relief, to see the Captain vanish, again. She seemed, to Daedalus, like a total coward; eager to attack Senshi alone, but not so eager to stick around when the odds were less even. And as tragic was that was for her, it was to their benefit; it meant that she was gone, and he and the orange-haired Senshi he'd stepped in to help were safe.

"Are you alright?" He asked. "That was a fantastic punch, by the way, but--no leftover symptoms? Having your starseed handled is terrible, trust me, I know."

For a thousand years, he;'d never seen someone handle a starseed. Now, it had happened thrice in a few short weeks. Selenga's, his own, now this girl's--clearly it was far more common than he'd thought, and the Negaverse was far more dangerous than he'd feared.

He would have to be a lot more vigilant. Ideally, he'd have liked to find a patrol partner...but....there really wasn't anyone he could ask. Bellatrix wasn't well. Murikabushi was Dark Mirror. Selenga had other concerns. In the end, Daedalus was...terribly, painfully alone, on Earth.

He didn't like thinking about that, if he was honest. So he pushed it away, and focused on looking the poor girl over for any external injuries.

genovianprince

 

[genovianprince]

Demeter grinned as the Captain vanished. Hah! Good. She turned to Daedalus, beaming at him. "Thank you! And, uh, no, not really. I mean, I'm sure if I let myself think about it, I'd kind of have a mental breakdown, but mostly I'm just cold. And I feel pretty awesome after that punch. Thanks again."

Noir Songbird