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Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 12:48 pm
Rowan grimaced as she hurried down the block, violin case in hand. The holidays were always good for making extra cash. Parties, the sort for people who would want a string quartet providing the background music, would often run late into the night, and she found that at least the better of the hosts enjoyed showing their generosity to the help. The downside, however, was shivering her way back to her car in the snow. The ankle length midnight blue dress she’d chosen for this evening did little to hold back the chill, leaving her immensely grateful for her black a-line peacoat and dark blue gloves. She’d checked the forecast beforehand, but as midnight approached the air sparkled with gently drifting snowflakes. She silently chided herself for not bringing more practical shoes for the walk as she pulled her coat more tightly around her body. At least there were no monsters, youma, as Halia had called them, paying her a visit tonight.
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Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2024 10:25 pm
Halia had worked the late shift tonight and after closing up, she found herself wandering around the city, enjoying the beautiful scenery. She wasn't quite ready to go home yet, and she didn't feel like patrolling unless something felt off. So here she found herself, walking by an old church at the edge of town. Snowflakes gently drifted down around her and she stopped to marvel at them, smiling softly. Little by little, she noticed them falling slower and slower, until finally they stopped altogether, frozen mid air as the clock struck midnight. Turning in a slow circle, Halia tried to assess the area but saw nothing. Well, nothing except for a familiar figure in a blue dress. She carefully made her way over, giving a small wave. "Rowan?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 12:42 pm
The change didn’t immediately strike Rowan as she walked, the slowing flurry registering only as a possible break in the snow. Maybe she didn’t want to see it, overwhelmed as she was by the growing strangeness in her life. Even the toll of a church bell ringing midnight took on a new eeriness in the still darkness. The few weeks since she encountered the youma had done little to soothe her fraying nerves, but tonight was just going to be routine. No monsters, no lingering anxiety tugging at the edges of her mind, just her music and an uneventful trip home. She ran a hand through her hair, absentmindedly working out a small tangle. The sound of a woman’s voice pulled Rowan from her not at all anxiety riddled musings and she smiled slightly, surprised to see Halia here of all places. She raised her hand in response to Halia’s wave, moving to close the remaining distance between them. As she moved more briskly, she could no longer escape the creeping recognition that something was wrong. Unnatural. Hopefully not deadly. She slowed her pace, staring wide eyed at the sparkling crystals hanging unmoving in the air, the raccoon dropping from a tree branch suspended several feet above the ground. She gestured wordlessly at the animal, briefly unable to form a coherent thought as her mind churned.
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Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2024 9:05 pm
Pale brown eyes followed Rowan's line of sight to land on the raccoon suspended mid air. Halia wasn't sure whether to be horrified or laugh, so she simply covered her mouth before turning back to Rowan. She gave the other girl a small smile as the distance between them closed, and she sighed. "I don't think it's the work of a youma, if that's what you're worried about. I... heard that this city is a hub of odd things happening. It... might just be something like that." She thought about the little icy cold bunnies she had encountered in the park earlier, then to her unfortunate experience around Halloween. Weird things definitely happened here outside of the battle between Chaos and Order. She reached up and gently poked at one of the suspended crystals, smiling softly. At least this seemed innocent enough. Safe for them at least. She couldn't speak for the poor floating raccoon, though.
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 2:01 pm
"…Right.” Rowan pondered briefly, speculating on how many bizarre things she might have passed without noticing before she encountered the youmonster. And the strangeness wasn’t contained to whatever else was going on with them? That was a problem, or at least it seemed like one. Halia didn’t seem terribly fazed by the situation and Rowan couldn’t help but wonder what else she had seen to make an apparent pause in the flow of time seem mundane (or at least non-threatening) by comparison. Though, given a moment’s consideration, she wasn’t entirely certain that she wanted to know. Those were answers for tomorrow Rowan. Or next week Rowan. Still, she couldn’t stop the question from spilling out, “I can’t say that I’ve noticed anything…quite like this before. I take it you have?”
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Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2025 3:27 am
Halia nodded. "Not... quite like this. But distortions in time and space, yes. Around halloween time, I ended up getting trapped in a magical gameboard with dice. Though I was lucky Sailor Helene was there with me..." She shuddered, a pang of anxiety running through her as she thought about it. That had been the worst night of her life so far, first with the gargoyles and then directly into the board game. Then outing herself to her boss as a senshi. That night had been nothing short of traumatic for Halia, and she shook her head to try and dismiss the memory. "It doesn't seem like anything malevolent, at least... so I wouldn't be surprised if it passes soon on its own." She smiled and wandered over to the poor racoon and gently set it on the ground. Just because they were fine didn't mean the poor creature needed to be hanging in mid air. "Weird things seem to happen here. A lot. In the summer I saw these multi colored shooting stars too... those were breathtaking." She smiled fondly as she thought of the rooftop she shared with Sonora, the first friend she had made while she was a senshi. "Some of it is malicious, and some of it is harmless. It's just... luck or chance, I think, on what you run into. Though I definitely prefer the harmless things like this."She walked back over to Rowan and smiled, reaching up to gently poke a snowflake. "It's pretty, don't you think? And magical. In a good way."
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Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 3:21 pm
Rowan smiled, the tension in her chest and shoulders easing ever so slightly as Halia spoke, at least nothing about this was life-threatening. That was definitely a nice change of pace as these things went. She spared the frozen raccoon another glance and wondered if it would register the sudden jump in its location. “That gameboard sounds,” she searched for a less than vulgar word to describe her thoughts on the subject, “like an unpleasant situation, to say the least. I’m glad that you get some beauty to try to balance things out. Or at least make them look nicer for a bit.” The raccoon lingered in her peripheral vision and for a moment she wished she had a cat.
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 11:31 pm
"It was enough to make me never want to leave my house around Halloween time ever again, to be honest." Her nose scrunched in displeasure as she thought back to the whole panic attack she had had after getting free with Helene. Absolutely never ever ever again. "The city is...strange. And I don't really know why. Not sure if anyone does. One of those things I should probably ask my friend about since he's been at this far longer than I have." She reached up and plucked a frozen snowflake from the air, smiling as she admired just how lovely it was. "Things like this don't last very long though. So I wouldn't be surprised if everything started moving again here any minute."As she spoke, the snow seemed to ever so slowly begin to drift towards the ground, almost as if it needed to build its momentum again. "There it goes. Just takes time, I think."
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Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 12:38 pm
Rowan couldn’t hide the sense of relief that washed over her as the night’s quiet rhythms resumed in almost imperceptible echoes. Even with her limited exposure to the city’s oddities she already felt a growing frustration with the lack of concrete answers on the subject. Unanswered questions, even of the mundane variety, always needled persistently at the back of her mind. Still, she was grateful for Halia’s patience with her unending stream of somewhat frightened curiosity. “Well, thank you for the company, you made it well, fun. Instead of terrifying.”The disoriented raccoon shot them both a slightly suspicious and possibly judgmental look before scampering off into the darkness.
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