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 Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2024 10:45 pm
Purification night inched ever closer. Ticking off the days until it happened left Reiki feeling anxious, itching with nervous energy to just get it done with already. Once he could get the straitjacket of Chaos energy off his starseed—once he could go visit his world, and see it with his own eyes, and care for it like he wanted to do so badly—maybe everything wouldn’t be perfect? Because when had anything in all realms of reality ever been perfect? But he sure hoped that he’d feel a lot less like it would’ve been okay if he fell to his death, or got hit by an oncoming truck, or got burned to death by a very unhappy Faustite.
Something in the air tonight felt odd and foreboding, but as he looked down from the roof of the flower-shop near Scandals, Reiki also felt like that was probably just him. Nobody seemed to be making any trouble around the bar, at least, and personally, Reiki loved to see it. Queer bars had enough to deal with from mundane sources of potential trouble. Once he felt satisfied that the patrons, staff, and performers at Scandals were relatively safe, Reiki took off, heading east, not really knowing what he might or might not run into but determined to be a thorn in the side of anyone who thought they could just hurt people with impunity. He could’ve mirrorwalked to make things easier on himself, but instead, Reiki took to traversing the rooftops on foot. Breaking himself of the mirror-walking habit little by little seemed like a good idea, plus it was easier to sense trouble out here in actual reality, instead of hiding inside a mirror.
It took a while for something to crop up on Reiki’s aura senses tonight, and when it did, he almost went in the other direction. He’d gone quite a ways from Scandals, over closer to a branch of the city library, and he felt two distinct energy signatures. One of them, youma. The other, someone with the White Moon—either an Eternal senshi or a Knight. Probably, they could handle the youma just fine on their own. But something pricked at the back of Reiki’s mind, nagging him like, What if they can’t tonight, though?
Facing the direction where the auras felt strongest, Reiki hesitated and sighed. Had he and Haruhi already been purified, there wouldn’t have been a question in his mind about what to do, but as it was……with him still bearing the Chaos on his starseed and liable to make any White Moon senshi or Knights react negatively to his very existence.…… Not anybody’s fault—except for Reiki’s because, way back at his Awakening, he hadn’t to ask Levi if there was any fine print—but still an unsatisfactory situation that Reiki had to live with. He turned, intending to retreat.
Then, he heard the youma roar.
Without a second thought, Reiki pivoted and started sprinting toward the youma and the White Moon senshi-or-Knight-or-whoever. As he got closer, he saw the youma hovering in an alleyway, looking from behind like a more serpentine dragon with dragonfly wings. He could only imagine how messed up it might look from the front. Maybe the White Moon person had this handled, but in case they didn’t, Reiki couldn’t just let himself leave them to their fate.
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Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:29 am
So far, tonight had been a long series of miscalculations and mistakes for Camelot.
First, when he powered up, he decided not to use his fourth stage, but rather his third. Having just come off his training session with Carlisle, he thought it might be safer with things acting so strangely. Now, however, his powers were not allowing him to power up further. Each time he tried, it felt like he needed far more power than normal, and had to spend extra time focusing.
Which he was not being allowed by the monster he was fighting. While it was not meant to be a strong youma, it was giving Camelot a run for his money. It was big, and it was mean, with lots of teeth and some very sharp claws that it was not afraid to use liberally, even against armor.
Armor that was maybe not standing up the way it usually did to attacks.
Camelot himself was also not fit to be fighting, especially something unexpectedly challenging. He had recently barely survived a battle that left his back badly injured, but he was too stubborn for his own good. Strange things were happening, and he thought to go out and investigate, despite protests from his friends and family. He was compelled to be there for his fellow Knights, but now he felt like a foolish, reckless newbie. It was a bad choice.
Tonight. Tonight was a bad choice.
He felt an aura rushing his way and was immediately relieved by it. In theory, they would be able to handle this youma easily, and he was not one to let his pride get in the way of accepting help when it was needed. As big claws tore a large chunk out of his metal shield, he was confident he needed it.
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Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2024 10:37 am
Getting close enough to see what he was dealing with, Reiki winced in sympathetic pain. The youma was going at some Knight who seemed worse for wear. Offhand, he didn’t recognize the color scheme aside from “Not Saturn, Not Neptune, Not Ida, and Not Lysithea.”… White, brown, and red could’ve fit with a lot of potential worlds, but—Reiki could ask about that later. After the youma got handled.
Without hesitation, he leapt down from the low roof, making enough noise as he landed on the lid of a nearby dumpster to draw the youma’s attention. It made a sound like RERK! as it whipped its head around, and roared again, showing off a gaping maw filled with rows upon rows of teeth, like a raging caricature of a shark. Clacking its long claws was probably meant to seem threatening, but all Reiki could think of as he watched the beast was the time a few years back, when he’d put Nariko in some long, dragged out fake nails for her Halloween costume.
“Yeah, yeah, Miss Thing,” he snarked, “I feel like That b***h when I’ve got my talons on, too.” Holding out his arm and letting his wrist loll backwards to summon his magic, he called to the Knight, “Might wanna look away if you’re squeamish!”
Then, focusing back on the youma, focusing on only hitting it and (please, please, please, no ******** ups, no ******** ups, please, please, please) leaving the poor Knight alone when he was having a hard enough time, Reiki did the yanking motion that always summoned his magic. “Ravenous Hunger!”
Normally, youma went down with only the first-level magic. Today, though, Reiki felt fine with breaking out the bigger guns. If this youma wanted to act like they were That b***h, then they could get smacked around with higher-level magic as if they were That b***h. Either way, the youma wailed and tore itself apart on a futile quest to eat itself alive, which was the important part.
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Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2024 1:27 pm
"Believe me, I'm not. I've seen more than enough in my time," Camelot laughed, the sound thankful and relieved all at once. He did get himself back, not wanting to get caught up in whatever the heck the other was planning to do. Plus, he knew that weapons and magic were not working quite like Knights would regularly expect. He was unsure if that had spread to others among any faction.
So he did not want to make himself any more of a target for the fairly vindictive universe than he already was. He lifted his battered long shield and protected himself, just in case.
While it was not his favorite way to see a youma defeated, Camelot was glad for the help. He charged and smashed his shield into the thing while it was tearing at itself, effectively putting it out of its misery as it burst into dust. His shield went with it, shattering in a way that had only happened once before.
And that was in a battle against a General King. Needless to say, it most certainly should not have suffered the same fate here. Sighing, Camelot turned toward his rescuer and lifted up a hand. The other was on his back, making him the picture of chivalrous exhaustion.
"Thanks for the help. That was a bit embarrassing, but I am very glad you were around. Your magic was quite impressive!" he pausesd, taking stock of his rescuer. Even his senses had been dulled, it seemed, as the aura only now reached him. "Ah. Well. Unless you were aiming for me and missed?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2024 2:11 pm
Meeting somebody who didn’t get squeamish about Reiki’s magic was always a source of relief, even in the middle of a fight. Not that he could begrudge anybody like Miss Sonora for disliking what his magic could do to other living beings (which youma were, regardless of anything else about the nature of their existence), because he couldn’t begrudge anybody those feelings. Reiki knew full well how unpleasant his magic could be, especially for seeing it on the first time somebody was meeting him.
He faltered slightly, however, watching the Knight practically knock himself out to take down the youma—or at the very least, seeming extremely winded by the effort he’d put in……and then losing his shield on top of it.…… That wasn’t how this was supposed to work, right? Sure, a weapon could break in theory, but Knight weapons were special—they had magic they could summon, and their very existence was magical as far as Reiki knew—and there was no way that a youma should’ve been able to do that to this Knight’s shield, right?
Without hesitation, Reiki hopped down and came to the Knight’s side, ready to help him up. He held out his hand, reaching for the Knight’s—only to drop it slightly at the reassessment.…… “Did…? Did you……?”
Even though the implicit accusation stung, Reiki looked down at the Knight with nothing but sympathy and more than a bit of confusion. His nose wrinkled like a terribly perplexed rabbit’s and his lips curled into a pensive frown. “Any time I hear something like that from you guys with the White Moon, it comes before I do anything,” he pointed out gently, “and more often than not, it’s based on absolutely nothing. Did you really not sense the Dark Mirror aura? Until just now?”
Being suspected of trying to hurt someone who hadn’t done anything wrong stung, but not nearly as much as it worried him that somebody else was out here with aura senses that weren’t working properly.
“For what it’s worth, I wasn’t aiming for you,” he added, just in case it helped put the Knight’s mind at ease. To hopefully emphasize that he came in a spirit of goodwill, Reiki extended his hand again. “I don’t think I’d confuse you for a youma even if my glasses broke. And I swear, I just wanted to help.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2024 5:06 pm
"Unfortunately, no, I was a bit distracted, but beyond that... I was unable to sense you for some reason." Camelot sighed, shaking his head and looking pained. He was not sure if he should share that his powers had been on the fritz, along with all the other knights, but considering he had just been rescued he supposed he could offer some trust in return.
Camelot nodded his head and took the other's hand, giving it a firm, friendly shake.
"I am Camelot, Royal Knight of Earth. Or I would be, if my powers were working well enough to allow me to power up further. Tonight, for some reason, I got myself in a bad situation. I am very thankful you thought to help me, so I owe you one."
He offered a bright smile, despite how very tired and pained he looked behind it. At least they were no longer in imminent danger, which took a huge amount of stress off of his shoulders despite his powers being unreliable. If he had gotten himself killed by a youma before he could even do anything to help sort things out for his fellow knights...
It was definitely not the kind of legacy he wanted to end on, that was for sure.
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Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2024 12:21 pm
“Murikabushi, senshi of hunger,” Reiki told Camelot, both listening and watching him carefully, just in case anything went awry and Camelot needed more help. Even if he’d wound up being the aggressive, jerk-a** sort of Knight, the kind who’d look at someone trying to help and genuinely assume the worst based on the Chaos aura, Reiki still would’ve felt for him, at the moment. Being out in Destiny City, only to have your powers start going on the fritz like Camelot’s had done? Sounded more dangerous than anyone needed to deal with, ever.
In response to Camelot’s gratitude, though, Reiki offered him a small, genuine smile. “Somebody out here was in trouble,” he said as if what he’d done was the simplest thing in the world. “What’s the point of even having magic if you don’t use it to help people?” This point of view, he suspected, was why he’d probably never see eye-to-eye with some of the folks he cared about in this war about the nature of his magic and what it could do to people. But the people who disagreed with him weren’t here, and Camelot, who didn’t look so good even after getting rid of the youma, was.
“So, I don’t think you owe me anything, but if you insist……well.” Reiki shrugged. Holding a tense breath, he looked around them pretty quick. Just because he couldn’t feel any Negaverse or other Dark Mirror auras didn’t necessarily mean they were alone. Thankfully, they did seem to be, so he relaxed some as he looked back to Camelot. “I’ll be easier to find pretty soon. And wearing white. Just……take care of yourself in the meantime, right? Do you have somebody who can help you get home tonight, maybe?”
After what had happened with the youma, and what Camelot was describing, it sounded like he could use some rest.
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Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2024 9:07 am
Camelot chuckled, nodding his head. He winced, rubbing his sore back and regretting every single life choice he had made that led to him standing there with less power than he was used to, on the embarrassing end of an encounter with a youma that he should have been able to dust without issue. Of course, he could blame a lot of that on the oddities the knights had been facing and the strange cases flooding the city, but his choice to come out while injured had been his own.
And that one was probably the worst thing he could have done, with or without his full power.
Still, he brightened up, green eyes filled with warmth and excitement at the revelation the other gave him. While it certainly made sense, he was always glad to hear it, especially when he knew how difficult a choice it could be for some. Someone he had been helping had not been able to firmly make the choice to switch sides yet, though it was clear to them both that it was only a few fears holding her back.
Fears he was slowly helping her overcome, and realities to prepare for. At least, he had been, before she went missing. But he tried not to let that thought distract him too much. There was a lot for him to worry about right now, but he was determined to see his way through it all.
"Oh, I'll get there, but I can send for my brother in arms, just in case," Camelot grinned sheepishly. "I know it means very little, coming from a stranger, but I am very proud of you, to hear of your decision, and I look forward to you seeking me out, when the time is right, and introducing me to your new self. And of course, if you ever need anything, I am at your service. I promise, I am a little more useful than this introduction might lead you to believe."
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