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 Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2025 12:05 pm
There was a growing consensus in her mind about really needing to be better about finding people to patrol with. Or at least keeping in better contact with other people when things were looking like they were about to go down.
Her sigh danced through the air as a puff of air in the chilly evening, illuminated by the park's lamp lights. Sure, part of her could excuse outings like this, ones where even though she was sitting on a bench as Solaris, she was leaning against the arm of the bench and legs drawn up to give support to the sketchbook and whatnot she was using. She wasn't patrolling, she was sketching out landscape snaps of the city through the snow glittered trees.
Totally different.
Yeah, she wasn't even accepting that as a joke for herself, maybe sarcasm.
A poor substitute for the self-preservation and wisdom to actually be smart about her choices out in the field. She knew a lot of the reasoning she used for herself, though, the reality that after a few years of being with people again, it hadn't yet erased the deep-rooted sensation that she should be alone. Some times were better than others, some moods she had an easier time reaching out. Others? She could feel the old habits creeping back, and at least knew better than to let herself travel back to her world when that hit hard. Curling up in a converted van with a load of living plants was better for her mental health than dwelling on the worst of times on an empty planet.
She drew in lung fulls of icy air, glancing off to where she could feel the prickle of another Order signature. Not too far away, from what she could tell, and a knight at that.
Her fingers drummed against the partially filled page absently before she made up her mind, flipping the sketchbook close and putting the pencils away, then storing it all in a small bag she shipped back into subspace.
That s**t was extremely useful...
Standing, she stretched as she walked, hands linked together and pressing towards the sky till she felt little cricks and cracks in her back and shoulders ease up some of the tension there. Her boots tapped lightly over the paved paths, meandering through the park after the other aura. Assuming they didn't bolt in the other direction, anyway.
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Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 1:41 pm
Celadon didn't bolt anywhere. She had come to the park first as Kaðlín, for a taste of the crisp cold and a little solace in nature. She came to hear the sounds of rushing cars and smatters of self-contained conversations fall away, and wandered ever deeper, wrapped in layers as she was, until so much of civilization acquiesced to quiet, pattering snowfall. It proved a beautiful moment, albeit a rare one since she left her homeland.
Then she had looked up to where she imagined the stars would be. The sky was a steel grey that trapped so much light between heaven and earth. But somewhere beyond that veil, she knew there was a place waiting for her.
It was then that she had powered up as Celadon, though she could not say why she hesitated to take that trip to her Wonder. And it was there that she remained until she realized, by footfalls, that someone approached her. Someone of a more welcoming sort, she hoped, once she had become aware of that strange auric sense again.
Once she turned cherry red eyes from the sky, she spotted her would-be visitor. Recognized her immediately. She had been there when Hy-Brasil invited a count of their allies to discuss Drayson and what to do with him. She was one of the senshi who had been from a much different time, and she had opinions as strong and unwavering as the yellow one with the horns and intimidating eyes.
"I remember you," she said at once, "you were there at Encke's comet, too. I'm glad you made it through… All of that." But 'all of that' hardly felt finished.
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Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2025 11:59 am
Exactly who she was going to encounter was, as always, up in the air. She knew it was a knight, though of what, and who, eh. But the sight of purples and greens made her tilt her head slightly, recognizing the colors and symbol before her gaze took in the knight as a whole, and recalled her face. Solaris smiled in response to the greeting, inclining her head briefly in confirmation.
Her hands rested easily at her hips, body lax now that she was sure of the aura's source. "Same to you--how've you been since..." One of her hands lifted, fingers wiggling in vague gesture to all of that.
She hadn't heard of any fallout personally, beyond what had already happened at the house... she'd been tempted to go back there, see what still remained. More of a morbid curiosity than anything.
It wasn't like any useful information could be gathered from those particular ashes--though she hoped there weren't any bodies amongst it.
"Have you heard anything since that night?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2025 11:20 am
"I've been fine," she confirmed, though her eyes cast downward and her brow furrowed in concentration.
Something rubbed her the wrong way about being fine. Specifically, she felt suspicious and wound up at all times, as if waiting for some sort of repercussion for her actions. But, so many days after the Negaverse had broken in and reclaimed one of their own, she hadn't even seen a hint of malice cast in her direction. It was as if nothing happened.
And from what Celadon had learned of Faustite? He was perilous and vindictive and stopped at nothing to have his revenge.
Shaking her head, she addressed the next question. Padding forward in her sandals and semi-frozen toes, she spoke while she made for one of the nearby benches.
"Not a lot. I've been watching the news — the fire wasn't covered much. It got a mention in one of the newspapers my boss reads. It seems like they thought some squatters accidentally started a fire in the house and left before it collapsed. I never saw anything about casualties, so I hope that means that everyone got out okay." Including the Eternal whose starseed was wrenched out of his chest for no more than an off-color comment.
"I've been wondering, though." Celadon sat on the chilled slats of the bench, then crossed one leg over another. "When are we going to start seeing some retaliation?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2025 5:57 pm
Solaris followed after her, though as Celadon carefully sat on the bench proper, she lingered on her feet, crossing her arms loosely before herself. The information was... well, generic. The story was believable, especially for this time of year, and she nodded her head vaguely as she listened and figured it was a positive that no deaths had been reported.
She made a mental note to reach out to a few others on that front, make sure they hadn't heard anything, either. But things sounded... weirdly promising.
Which made her grimace at the Page's own question in return, a valid one that highlighted the concerning current layout of events. "No idea," she admitted with a sigh, shoulders slumping a bit on the exhale. "Because the guy got away, he knows everyone's faces that was there earlier, and who knows who else is getting added into the list just by association from showing up when the fight broke out." Hopefully no one, but she wasn't about to bet on any level of potential pettiness and revenge-seeking from the Negaverse.
"If folks said their names near the hostage, then he's got that info to share, though not sure how much they actually need that to try and locate anyone." Visual descriptions could go pretty damn far, if he'd memorized enough. The various non-human folks present were at least sporting various features that could certainly help identify them... yay.
She had no positive point to add to things, and tilted her head to the side somewhat as she gave a little shrug to Celadon. "Could be next few days, could be next few months. Guess it just boils down to what info they do have, and not sure how to estimate on that front. Wish I could offer something better."
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Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2025 11:20 am
"Right," she concurred. "He laid eyes on everyone that guarded him. I'd heard his commanding officer, I guess they're called? Is extremely retaliatory, so I'd been expecting as much. It just feels like I've wasted all this time waiting. I don't like it."
She wasn't the only one with a whole life to live. And while Celadon didn't have a whole lot beyond figuring out what happened to her best friend, working, and going for the occasional hike, she knew the rest of the people involved likely had as much going on or more. They likewise couldn't afford to be stuck in a perpetual holding pattern over something like anticipated revenge. But maybe the rest of them knew better than to wait for the Negaverse's next move. Who could know?
"It's okay," she replied when the other girl confessed she couldn't offer anything else. "I might have been asking the wrong question."
Sitting up a little, she folded her arms against her stomach as she started to explain. "We don't really have any control over what they do. But, I was thinking back to that meeting we had, up in the stars? We have control over what we do, so maybe the answer is to prepare better. Or keep bringing the fight to them. I don't know exactly, I'm probably too new to know. But there's plenty of people among us who have been around long enough to have a very good idea of what could come next."
She hummed to herself. "Hy-Brasil had some … Mauvians, I think they're called? But they hung around the building to keep all those auras to ourselves while we worked out what to do. I've been thinking about contacting some of them and getting everyone together to start working together. Or coming up with some other way to reach out.
"What if we did something like that?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 12:07 pm
She decided to not harp on the stupidity and danger of running head-first into picking fights with people like Faustite, at least not without a proper plan in place... that'd been beaten to death at this point, she was sure.
Instead, she remained quiet as Celadon readjusted her approach on the topic, the brunette's head tilting slightly as she listened. To each point, Solaris nodded, a small smile forming. That meeting back on Encke had left her with various whirling thoughts of her own, things she wasn't sure how to pin-point or address but...
She liked how Hy-Brasil and Celadon's actions seemed to help push Order's attention (at least amongst some thus far that she was aware of) onto the weaknesses of their lack of united front--and from it, how to fix that. Hopefully. Staying positive here.
"I think that's the right start," she hummed, grin growing to the proposal of rounding up a few guardians to help negate the energy signatures for a proper meeting. "Yeah, Mauvians, or just call them 'guardians' if that helps. But you're right, in terms of what we do have control of."
Her gaze flicked away as she considered, and after a few beats, let out a soft huff that poofed into a short-lived, misty cloud. "Communications, defensive points, stock of available weaponry, and stock of necessary resources like food, medical supplies, and shelter--those were always the biggest points people would focus on, when my people were at war. Of course, info on enemies also ranks up there, but you can't put that into use if you don't have the fire power to back it up, or battle-ready soldiers even able to put plans into practice." For a moment, Solaris wondered if she could locate old plans somewhere in the various archives or bunkers, if only to get a better idea of how the people in charge would put together such things...
"I only followed orders--" When she actually listened and complied. "--from the people who knew what they were doing, but I think those are still good places to start... once you know who's even willing to work with you on things. So... yeah, I think you've got the right starting point. If we know who we can reach out to on projects, or who's skilled in what, we can better come up with that next step." She paused, lips pursing, and laughed a bit at herself as she considered. "I'm just repeating myself at this point, aren't I? Sorry. I never had to build up a unit from scratch, just joined what other people already put together, or take things that already existed from defunct units and repurpose it."
Things that she somewhat longed for here--someone to just take charge, do all the thinking and just tell her what s**t needed to be done and she'd do it.
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Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2025 6:26 pm
"Thanks," she nodded gratefully for the suggestion. "I'm still learning, well, everything." And it was difficult for her to reach out at times, though she knew he had a few good contact for exactly that. Sometimes, though, Celadon wished she could sit back in the comfort of her own apartment and read more about knight and senshi stuff without needing to stay vigilant for enemies or be on a completely separate planet. But, as far as she knew, no one had committed to writing out everything they needed to know in some kind of hand-bound zine.
A missed opportunity, she supposed. Unless there was some cosmic mailbox for her and she hadn't been checking it this entire time. No one's brought that one up to her, though, so she doubted that was the case.
Solaris had a lot of good points about her own world, and Celadon took note of them as she listened. There were probably a lot of nuances between Solaris's lived experiences and how she was translating that into English for Celadon, but she still found plenty of points to take home in between the gist of what she was saying. In essence, there were a lot of moving parts to fighting a war, and a lot of angles to consider, and none of that fell on the shoulders of one person alone. Even if Solaris only ever followed orders, that in itself was something — it said she had other people she trusted to lead, and that those people weren't in the singular.
And she gave a vote of confidence. Considering that she had a lot of lived experience to inform her decision, and had a lot of experience with war in particular, Celadon let that burgeoning feeling that she was doing something right wash over her.
After a moment of thought, she responded. "In some ways, I think it's better that you haven't had to build a unit from the ground up. Maybe this is an assumption on my part, but I think out current war — and the people in it — are probably pretty different than the ones back home for you? Different gathering of folks, different circumstances, stuff like that. So I think if you had a lot of success creating units with one specific strategy, it'd be harder on you if you committed to that and it didn't go quite the way you were expecting.
"I guess I'm saying, no experience might let us see more clearly how people are reacting to what's happening and change course." She hoped she was making sense. English wasn't either of their first languages.
"I appreciate that you'll talk to me about it, though."
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Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2025 8:05 pm
That... hadn't been the response she'd expected. On any level, really. With wide eyes, Solaris beheld Celadon, her mind replaying her words over and over. It's better she hadn't done it herself, but she wasn't focused on specific strategy, or expected outcome or flow. She thought of how shocked she'd been of Order's behavior at large a few times now--of course most recently, Hy-Brasil and Celadon's own actions to kidnap an enemy agent. If she tried to think back to how some of the higher ups from her world might have been on any of their soldiers doing that with no proper planning, or even a lick of what to do next even if it was a spur of the moment opportunity...
But she wasn't dealing with hardened soldiers. Tactics had been different enough between the various groups she'd encountered back among her people--different cultures, different values and so on--but there'd been some similarities and she knew in general what to expect from groups up to a point...
"That... is a very good way to look at it, actually. Thank you for that. I think I needed that perspective."
She wanted to help, if she could, though she was baffled by some of what she'd seen on Earth... but perhaps she had been holding onto her expectations too long, unfairly to say the least.
"We still had different nations, cultures, so on, on Solaris... but yes. Things on Earth are a lot more different than I thought they'd be." Her smile was genuine to Celadon, new food for thought to consider on her end. "I'm excited to see a meeting happen, though. And I'm happy to talk about... whatever, if you ever want--stuff going on in the war, life. I don't know a lot of how things work for knights, but if you ever need someone to go with you to your wonder, or patrol buddy, feel free to let me know."
That was part of it, wasn't it? Making connections, making yourself available to help other people. She appreciated the thoughtfulness she'd seen in Celadon thus far--she was learning, fast, and Solaris wanted to support that however she could. It was... nice, to talk more freely about her experiences. Took away some of the feeling of not entirely belonging around here.
Strickenized that works for me! <3 your post or my next would be good to end I think
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 2:04 pm
Celadon was glad to have, presumably, made a difference. Even a small one. She'd met plenty of people over the course of her life who struggled to look at their own experiences as valuable, whether that was to their own pursuits or to a job or something else. She never imagined meeting someone from another world entirely, and yet having any kind of positive impact on them, but — she was glad she got that opportunity. And she would be glad to do it again.
And, for a moment, she wasn't thinking about why she came to Destiny City, or why she kept powering up as Celadon and going out into the night.
As she listened to Solaris's clarifications, she nodded. She had no idea about Solaris or any of the other planets out there. She didn't know if they were the same size as Earth, or bigger, or smaller, or if they were composed of entirely different stuff. But, as Solaris talked, she could start to imagine different nations and cultures and the inevitable culture clashes. Maybe they even had culture wars, like here on Earth. Maybe anyone who had a starseed was prone to the same stuff.
But, it was the past-tense phrasing that had her stop just shy of asking to visit Solaris herself. If her people, her nations, were all past-tense, then Celadon did not want to compel her to face that more than absolutely necessary.
Instead, she agreed to meeting up with Solaris again anywhere else. "I don't know a lot about knights either," she almost laughed for it, "but I'd love to have your help on my Wonder." To her, it was a beautiful little valley on Cybele's planet, but she didn't have the same kind of connection to it that Solaris must have had to her home. Besides, Solaris might have some good ideas on how to revitalize the woods.
"I think I'm going to call that meeting soon, but afterward, I'd love to get your thoughts on my Wonder. If I don't see you there, we can meet back here on the fifteenth? Probably in the evening."
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 4:15 pm
Solaris did give Celadon a slightly puzzled, concerned look to hear she also didn't know a lot about knights, but put those questions aside for now. There'd be other times for that, and ideally, getting said questions answered. Though--she did make a mental note to reach out to Cybele at some point, too, to query how things were going with her world. If there were things she might be able to assist with at large, or just to keep in mind if-when she got the chance to visit Wonders there like Celadon's....
They were positive thoughts, happy goals for the future. Like the meeting.
"Sounds perfect to me. All of that. I should be there no problem for the meeting, but either way, fifteenth back here's a plan."
It was... definitely a warm, fuzzy feeling of sorts, to make plans with people. Positive things. Positive improvements. And some food for thought to reconsider how she's been trying to approach some aspects, and her place, in all of this...
She took her leave feeling remarkably... okay, considering everything that wasn't. A side effect, she guessed, of working with other people.
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