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 Posted: Fri Dec 20, 2024 11:44 am
Frozen Time (3)
Winter was, if nothing else, beautiful.
Out away from the main hustle and bustle of the city, the neighbourhoods were far quieter and just as brightly lit. Colorful holiday displays popped up on lawns and over rooftops, inflatable or cord-strung wire. They were wonderful. Spectrolite didn't like the cold, but she did enjoy the holidays. Still needed to finish her shopping for her brothers, though. Dad had been relatively easy enough--she'd found a really nice restaurant and got a gift card with more than enough on it to treat all of them to a dinner. Plus a little extra if he ever wanted to stop back himself. The man deserved the treat, if not far, far more.
Her brothers… well. She let out a small huff of a laugh, her breath puffing out into a small cloud in the chilly air. She loved the brats, despite how they grated on her nerves. Maybe a new game? Or vouchers for some classes or workshops? They liked those, the chance to learn new skills or improve their hobbies.
Her mind wandered as the pink-haired young woman slid between shadows on the sidewalks and parking lots, the former growing longer and longer while the latter fell more and more in favor of homes, lawns, and driveways. Searching for more people to snatch a little energy from, really. She wasn't… horrible at it. And people were so happy and sweet this time of year. It wasn't too hard to mask things in helping people stand up or other relatively brief contact. But she was bored of the crowded downtown and central hubs of the city.
Spectrolite was grateful to have the chance to wander a quieter part of the city, enjoy the colorful lights and… oh!
The church up the drive was fully lit, its colorful displays dispelling any darkness within its immediate vicinity. It was beautiful, the way the lights danced over the twinkling snow, mirroring the stars high above that tried to peek between heavy clouds. Peaceful. Ethereal. She felt calmed by the sight, and didn't begrudge her feet for turning up the path leading there.
Up a hill with gentle slopes and moderate lawncare, trimmed hedges hunkered down for the winter, empty trees that would someday soon bloom again in full greenery and blossoms. They swayed lightly in the faint breeze, accompanied by the dancing of tiny flakes drifting from above. The scene was magical in every word, and she smiled for the chance to behold it, clasping her hands together before her and closing her eyes. A quick prayer didn't seem bad to her. Above, the bell began to toll, a light metallic melody that warmed her--
Well. Until she opened her eyes.
The bell continued its rhythmic toll, but the flakes illuminated in the lights… didn't move. It was impossible to not miss it, and Spectrolite could only stare in bewilderment. No breeze whispered through the trees, no distant hum of traffic.
She swallowed thickly as the bell gave its third toll, feeling for a moment as frozen as the world around her. What now..?
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Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2024 3:07 pm
Truthfully, Jishui wasn’t…well. Wasn’t ever out this late at night. But she had been having trouble falling asleep, and the idea of a walk in the cold seemed as though it could help. The cold always made her feel a bit more tired, so it would work. It would help.
If the cold didn’t, then a long walk would.
She felt Chaos before she saw it, and heard the sound of a bell. It took until the third ring to realize that…something was wrong.
Nothing was moving. The wind had stopped…sound had stopped…it…
It was like when she would half wake up. Everything was…
Panic laced through her chest and pain radiated out due to it.
…The…Chaos. The feeling of Chaos…this…
Her steps were stumbling as she made her way towards the feeling, but as she grew more sure in her motion, she sped up.
“What…what have you done?” The words sounded terrified. Ripped from her throat, and she lunged at the unfamiliar person, arm extended to punch.
She wasn’t big. She wasn’t strong…but right now, she was scared.
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 4:35 pm
Why was everything frozen? And not the typical, weather-type frozen!
The sudden press of an Order signature made her flinch, eyes darting around before finally spotting the incoming form in white and pink. She stumbled backwards, reeling from the sudden movement when everything else wasn't and yelped.
Spectrolite at least managed to summon her weapon to her hands, the simple plastic toy with the multiple stacking rings, to block the senshi's punch. Her arms hurt from the impact that was still strong enough to jar her, and she winced.
"Me? Oh no no no, don't even try that with me, magical chick!" The pink-haired woman huffed, trying to kick at the senshi's shin with her boot. "You people are the magical aliens, not me!"
At least, that was the most simplistic rendition of what she understood from the Negaverse's explanations of everything.
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 4:41 pm
“Do not lie to me! You are Chaos! All that Chaos does is destroy and decimate and corrupt…”
The kick landed and she lunged forward, trying to push Spectrolite to the ground. It wouldn’t do much good. She knew that but…but she was so…so afraid.
“How have you stopped everything…what have you done? I can’t…I can’t do this again. I will not watch this planet die too, just because you…you have tainted it!”
She had done that once. Jishui had lived it. Walking every so often. Unable to move. Unable to act. Unable to do anything but watch her planet die.
“Fix this now, or I swear I will end you!”
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 5:27 pm
"I don't have magic, you idiot!"
The bit about Chaos destroying and corrupting and such... well. She wasn't engaging with that. They weren't invading like these senshi were, they were trying to strengthen the planet and protect their homes.
When the senshi lunged at her, Spectrolite cried out, hitting the snow hard on her back. She wasn't even five-foot, and the small senshi held enough height over her (and let's be fair, Spectrolite skipped every training session she could get away with) to make an impact. Still, she tried to strike the other woman's head with the stacking toy--some of the rings had fallen off, leaving just the central stick.
"If I had the power to stop time, don't you think I'd be using it on you right now?!"
To her, the logic was so obvious that this wasn't her doing. But if it really wasn't the senshi's, either..? She wasn't sure she believed the freaked out act. Could just be a trap and all.
....but what did she mean again? Watching a planet die again..?
"I can't do jack, lady! And I'm not tainting anything! I'm keeping my family safe from you damn parasites! Get off our world!"
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 5:52 pm
“Then what is doing this?” Jishui’s voice was pleading, and even though the toy collided with her head, she didn’t even try to retaliate, her panic was rising and tears began to spill over in her eyes. It. This was too much.
“How do we fix it? I can’t do this again. I don’t want to be stuck. I don’t want to be stuck again.”
Everything was trembling and she sank slowly to the ground, unable to stay upright for any longer. Not when time had stopped. Not when she was stuck. When the world was stuck.
Why hadn’t she just been able to sleep? Why had this had to happen.
“Please fix this…”
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 6:04 pm
Spectrolite... wasn't sure what to do here.
As the senshi began to cry, the agent just... stared at her. Again with the again stuff. Spectrolite scrambled back slightly as the other woman sank down, at least until she could first sit, then pull herself into a crouch to get herself out of the snow. It was still cold...
"This... city's just weird sometimes," she found herself saying, and was startled by her own voice.
What training she had had yelled at her to drain the senshi's energy, call Seraphinite maybe, do something.
But she was... actually upset. Neither of them were behind time freezing, and the woman's trembling and crying was... well. Upsetting her, too.
"You're not stuck," she said gently, setting down the toy weapon in the snow. Not sending it away, it was still near if she needed it. "I'm not stuck. Magic can get weird in this city sometimes. But it always goes away." Eventually... She found herself glancing over her shoulder at the brightly lit church, and shivered. It'd all happened when that bell had rung...
"I think... the bell did it. Or something. But that's good! Cuz it wasn't one of us, or um... one of the really powerful ones." She decided at the last second that mentioning General Sovereigns or winged OP freaks wasn't going to help the situation. "So it'll go away! We're not stuck, and soon everything else will be unstuck, too."
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 6:18 pm
Jishui swallowed and tried to calm herself down, at least a little. What the woman was saying was…comforting? Kind of. It…it made sense? But it didn’t. How could strange things just…happen? How could something like this just happen.
“...I…I don’t understand…I know that…the Earth has problems but…this is beyond my understanding I…”
She shuddered and a sob escaped, and Jishui squeezed her eyes shut tightly. “I can’t do this again…I…back on my planet…I was…I was frozen. It…I do not like this…I…how do we get this to stop…? I can’t…I don’t want to do this again…please. Can…should we attack the bell…?”
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 6:35 pm
This felt so beyond her pay grade, so to speak, and so against what she'd been told to do if she encountered a senshi...
Though, this one didn't give her the same creepy vibes Rigel did.
"Weird stuff happens in the city around the holidays like this," she tried to explain, aware that it was.... not much of an actual answer for anything. "I don't know why, but I guess I've just gotten used to it?"
My planet, she said, and Spectrolite felt a chill race down her spine. It spread into goosebumps and the hair at the back of her neck standing on end as the woman continued to speak. Frozen on... her... planet...
It felt surreal to hear the invading magical aliens actually admit to being an alien...
Attack the bell..? She glanced back at the church, its form growing almost ominous to her given the state of things. "I dunno... maybe. I mean I know that'll involve breaking and entering into the church, or the bell tower at least if the church is unlocked, and property damage, so I mean, crimes, but it using magic like this should totally be a crime, too. It's not, I think. Laws haven't caught up on that. But it really, totally should be--"
She was babbling, uneased herself and unsure how to stop this and what the senshi said freaked her out, won't lie. Talking about being frozen on another world--it appealed to some part of her, though. The uh. Other world part. Not the frozen part. The childish wonder of magical, far off lands peered through the unease and distrust of the senshi. The Rift had appealed to her for that same reason, but she knew how dangerous that place was. Was this other world, too? There was something almost sad in that thought.
"How... were you frozen..?"
The tentative question had begun to leave her lips when it felt like the world around them took a sudden inhale. Spectrolite blinked a few times, realizing the snow... was falling again.
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 6:44 pm
Jishui shuddered and drew her knees to her chest, burying her face in them, not wanting to see. Not wanting to face everything.
The question though, she swallowed. “It was…Stasis…my world was dying…and a Mauvian put me into it to protect me, so that when things were better I would be able to do my duties but…it wasn’t…I wasn’t asleep. Not the whole time…and…and when I would wake? I couldn’t move. Couldn’t act…couldn’t do anything…for so long I just…I couldn’t…I got to the Earth…I got here and I just…there’s so much Chaos here too…I can’t…this is my home now and I can’t stand to see…can’t stand to…I can’t let another planet die. And that’s what I’m doing right now…it’s…I’m…”
She shuddered. “It’s awful to be so powerless…”
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 7:05 pm
As the senshi curled more into herself, Spectrolite floundered slightly. The snow was falling. She could hear the sounds of the city beyond the outskirts they sat in. The church didn't seem all that friendly, and she wasn't too keen to stay so close to it for much longer...
But she still listened to what the woman was saying. The tale she told sounded like a horror movie, and Spectrolite again felt the icy chill run through her. A dying world, being trapped and... like she said, powerless--
Her brain snagged on the got to the Earth part and she felt like her head was spinning. Was she like those uh.... those aliens helping out the Queen..?
"We don't want it to die, either," she said softly, a hand reaching out to the senshi before she thought better of it and fiddled with the hem of her uniform's skirt instead to keep her hands to herself. "I'm... I'm sorry you went through that. It sounds horrific. I can't even being to imagine how you survived all that... but I promise you, I don't want anything like that happening here. To anyone else."
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 7:12 pm
It took a few moments for Jishui to finally raise her head. She wanted to laugh. Would have laughed if she weren’t so upset. Would have scoffed and scolded, but all she could do was shake her head at the Chaos infected woman.
“...I…I’m glad that you don’t want it…but…” The snow was moving again. The wind was moving again…they were no longer stuck…Jishui could breathe but…
Swallowing, she reached out and put a hand on the other woman’s cheek. “...You are infected with Chaos…and all Chaos knows how to do is destroy...you…don’t seem bad...and I hope you can break free…I…I want to eradicate Chaos from the cosmos…I know it’s…impossible but…” Two tears slid down the tracks left on her cheeks and she shuddered. “...Until you’re free from Chaos…you’re part of the problem…on this planet…but you seem…kind.” Which was so much more than she could say about the others she had met.
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Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 7:27 pm
Despite the situation, Spectrolite smiled a bit when the senshi lifted her head. Progress! For the moment, she shoved down the nagging voice at the back of her head that scolded her for even caring if the senshi was alright... or at least for not having contacted someone who could help the senshi over to the right side...
Wait, wasn't there something about that process causing some memory issues..? Maybe that'd help her even more, so she didn't have to deal with those horrible memories--
Spectrolite was jerked from her musings as a gentle hand rested on her face. Blue eyes wide, she stared at the dark-haired senshi. The more the woman spoke, the more Spectrolite's expression prickled and wrinkled in confusion.
"I... I know you've seen horrible things. I won't question that. But..." Carefully, one of her own hands covered the senshi's, her brows furrowing in a mixture of sympathy and... confusion of how wrong this view was.
"I won't pretend I know everything, and if there's other parts of Chaos that are hurting worlds like yours, then that needs to stop. But the Negaverse isn't doing that. We're trying to protect Earth. People way, way stronger than me use that power to protect people. I know we gather energy and stuff from people, but we don't kill anyone--"
Her voice faltered before she could stop herself, eyes glancing off as her tongue was tied amidst thoughts and memories. She'd never been able to fill her starseed quota in the past. Seraphinite had always... done that for her...
"....not all of us do," she said in a far smaller voice, throat feeling... tight in that moment. Seraphinite was a good man, he kept people safe. He just... he just had to also make very difficult decisions sometimes, and the Sovereigns had to deal with the worst of those decision making times...
She'd always hated the concept of for the greater good, but she knew it was the core of those worst choices they made, so that their forces would have the power necessary to protect everyone else.
...so why couldn't she meet the senshi's gaze now...?
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Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 1:33 pm
Jishui wanted to say more. Wanted to protest, wanted to show...to convince this woman that even if she didn’t think so…she was a part of the problem…and it might not even be her fault but…she was. Chaos was.
Slowly, sadly she lowered her hand from the woman’s face and gave a sigh, drawing herself away. “...Just…Chaos blinds people…just…know that there is no good Chaos…it…no matter the form it is designed to only destroy…you don’t seem like someone who should be destroyed, and I’m sorry that it has taken hold in you…and turned your heart so hard…”
Not that she was anything like the others that she had met…honestly, of all of them, Jishui thought that this person might have the best chance to break away from the Chaos, if that were possible but. Her insistence that…what she was a part of wasn’t bad...
Jishui drew in a long, slow breath and pushed herself to her feet. “...I should go…I don’t want…I don’t want time to stop again…but you…I hope that you take care…and I hope that you can find…a way out…if your heart ever tells you to do so…”
It…would be nice to have her as a friend, she realized. And the thought…was a sad one but. There it was.
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Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 3:42 pm
Why did she feel so uncomfortable now?
She shifted a bit where she crouched, wanting to argue, defend the Negaverse but... she knew there were daunting arguments against it. Youma. Starseeds being taken. But she'd also seen all the damage caused by senshi around the city, and the random magical happenings like the one they'd just dealt with.
As the woman stood, Spectrolite pushed herself up to her feet, dusting off some of the snow from her legs. She had no real response to the senshi's sad words, but she did send away her silly toy weapon and held out her hand to the senshi.
"I'm Spectrolite. I know... you have every reason to hate Chaos, I don't blame you at all after what you've been through. But... I do want to protect my home and family, here. So, since you also want to keep Earth safe, it'd be nice if we could work together on that, somehow."
She felt ridiculous, and she knew if Seraphinite or Rigel were here she'd never hear the end of it, or the training sessions--and it'd probably be far worse if anyone else caught her being workplace friendly with a senshi.
But if they shared a common goal... why was that a bad thing?
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