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 Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 7:09 pm
A day or two after her birthday, Alice crawled out of the bathroom window that she'd seen Cressida climb out of on several different occasions before. She had to know where she was going in the middle of the night. She had to. Just because Cressie said she wasn't seeing someone, didn't mean she wasn't and. Okay fine, she was worried. She was worried her best friend was doing something dumb and dangerous. Worried she wouldn't come back one of these late nights.
So she planned to follow her and make sure she wasn't doing something highly illegal or dangerous. Cressie left a good fifteen minutes ago, and she knew from books that you had to wait a bit of time before you tried to shadow someone, so she bundled up in a coat and boots and snuck out.
The only problem with her plan was that once she was outside, she had no idea which way Cressie could have gone. She knew where the paths were on campus, but she had no idea where to go from there. Somehow, instead of sneaking back into the Academy - maybe because she realized that she had no idea how to get back to the second story window now that she'd climbed out of the tree - she decided to continue searching.
It was nearing midnight by the time she turned into a more closed off area of the park she'd wandered into. She was cold, she was tired, and still she hadn't found Cressida. It was a good six blocks back to the Academy and she hadn't thought up how to sneak back into the dorms yet.
What she didn't expect to see was some person with incredibly long hair and wearing practically nothing in the middle of winter. Doing. Something to a random dude. She tried to back away but the dude sort of flailed in her direction and shouted for help.
Oh... crap.
amorremanet alrighty ilmari, let's scare her into powering up, shall we?
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Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2025 11:14 am
Ever since that whole debacle back in December, with Heliodor getting kidnapped and tortured, Ilmari had been prickly. Brittle. More easily irritated. He knew this about himself. He did not, however, think it needed to be stopped so much as moderated to prevent it from inconveniencing or harming anyone whom Ilmari actually cared about.
After all, it made sense for him to be prickly, he felt. Heliodor getting kidnapped had been a mess, top to bottom. In several respects, it still was a mess. Heliodor had been taken under his old civilian alias; he had been recognized, and so, the White Moon cretins who’d done the deed must have had some privileged knowledge. Unless Heliodor had branched out into befriending Mirror senshi recently, the only people who could have outed him like that were working within the Negaverse, which would have made ratting out one of their comrades a serious betrayal. Not just of Heliodor and by extension Faustite, but of the entire Negaverse, of Queen Metallia and her will.
And here was Ilmari, devoted helper-urchin who would always work hard for his team, but who lacked the power to do anything of actual significance for them. Getting the coffee (at least, if Ms. Hestia hadn’t already gotten it). Filing the reports. Making Albite’s comprehensible to people who read Actual English rather than Albitean. Little things that it felt like no one really noticed because why should they, because those things didn’t really matter. Especially not when there was a traitor lurking somewhere in the Negaverse, and they might have had some kind of personal bone to pick with Heliodor, or with Faustite, or with someone tied to the team, which hypothetically put all of them in danger. The entire Negaverse, even.
And still, Ilmari filed the reports and performed his silly little tasks, like a pomeranian at the Westminster Kennel Club.
The worst part was, those silly little tasks always felt fulfilling when Ilmari did them. He always felt so pleased with himself for doing them—until he remembered how much bigger the war was. How much more he needed to get himself capable of doing.
Feeling inadequate like that had led Ilmari to plunge his hand into more than a few chests since December. Trying to emulate Albite, Heliodor, Alkmene, or Fafnir felt too far beyond him at the moment. Definitely, he held all of them and their standards of performance in his mind as long-term goalposts to reach. But if he shot for those points right now, as a basic without even a full year’s experience to his name, he would only grow discouraged. No, no, Ilmari had to look toward a different senior-ranking senshi for goal inspiration.
Someone like Mizuki. She was dedicated, she was loyal, and she was utterly ferocious. To him, it seemed like, whenever she had any sort of problem, she simply starseeded it until it stopped being a problem, then didn’t let it bother her. Maybe that sort of confidence was beyond Ilmari—but ripping out starseeds certainly wasn’t.
He’d already pulled several tonight. Mostly from civilians, but the rush of plunging his hand into someone’s chest and curling his fingers around their crystalline soul? Provided the best balm currently available for all of the insufficiencies Ilmari felt he had. After each starseeding, he’d scampered several blocks away, lest he get himself caught too close to the bodies. He’d wound up not terribly far off from Crystal Academy—a few blocks away, probably—which Ilmari initially took for some horrible bad luck on his part.
Except then, he’d seen the rush of greens and browns. He’d felt the energy signature that matched his own but had the toxic brightness of an Order aura, bleach white and blinding. Whipping around, following the aura, Ilmari found himself face to face with a little Page, wearing the encircled cross symbol that marked them as a Knight of Earth. Obviously not the one who’d organized kidnapping Heliodor—not powerful enough for that; even without powering up, Aelius likely could have wasted this chubby little thing—but that didn’t mean they couldn’t suffer for their comrade’s sins.
“Whatever you’re doing,” the Page said, half-breathlessly, ignoring the way Ilmari shifted his posture, “you should really……like, really, really stop? It doesn’t—”
They squeaked like a chew toy as Ilmari’s hand dove into their chest. As he tightened his grip around their starseed, smirking down into their round face, the Earth Page winced. Made a whining sound of pain.
“You should really be more careful,” Ilmari purred. “Presumption like that gets people killed.”
As he yanked his hand out of the Page’s chest, that quip felt truly, devastatingly witty (and ha HA, certain Order skanks who hung around Faustite like ******** groupies could shut. up. about acting like Ilmari didn’t know how to throw shade, the way that Murikabushi had accused about him twice now, because Ilmari totally did know how to do that, actually!!!). The Page collapsed to the pavement with a dull thud, and Ilmari allowed himself a smile, oblivious to the fact that a witness had joined him for this round.
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Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2025 6:46 pm
She watched, in horror as the young man reached into some other young man's chest - in a funny get up even - and pulled something out. Alice plastered herself against a nearby tree, because some how the dude had not seen her. Even with all the rapid fire movement he was doing. Oh gosh, she should not be here, she should absolutely not be here did the long haired man just kill that man in green?!
What... what should she do? This seemed far out of the realm of the police. But she'd witnessed a murder (Cressida would be so upset she didn't bring her with her). If she tried to run, would the dude see her? Hear her? He'd obviously murder her too, for witnessing it. But she couldn't just... leave it like this. If there was a chance that whatever the dude had pulled from the other dude's chest could be salvaged...
Cressida was going to kill her.
Warmth spread out from her chest. That feeling of needing to try, of wanting to help some how, and wanting to not die (because, let's be real, she's a sixteen year old who's just witnessed a whole a** magical murder) spread through her limbs until Alice felt a piece of willow branch settle in her hands. There was a soft caress against her chin, like someone welcoming her home. Then she felt it.
The darkness that oozed off of the long haired young man like oil. And the flare of something warm and good and right sitting in his palm.
The Page of Cybele stepped out from behind her tree with far more confidence than she felt. She didn't even know what this was, or why she suddenly was barefoot in a dress. She didn't know why she was holding a willow branch like some sort of rope. But she was.
And now she was facing the young man with a hole in his chest, terror in her veins.
"Put it. Back. Whatever it is," she said, voice cracking a little with fear. Well. She tried.
stari_magi figure cybele can appear after ilmari's next post?
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