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 Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2025 3:17 pm
Tianyi knew that he had to do more than just...wander around and hope. If he wanted to be anything other than the useless, pretty little decoration he had always been, he had to start helping people. Had to...do literally anything other than make sad eyes at youma and pray someone else would back him up when he faced anything Chaos-related.
So, when he felt the icky and yet strangely familiar pull of Chaos, he decided to go towards it, instead of away. He wasn't exactly sure what he'd do, confronted with an actual person who was corrupted by it, given that apparently those existed, but...well, he was going to try to do...something? Maybe?
He came upon them in an alley; an ordinary civilian and...a Senshi, Tianyi was pretty sure. A Senshi with long, long blonde hair, dressed in black with splashes of vibrant color, and--yes, there were the cracks in his forehead and chest that Tianyi had been warned meant a Senshi who served the Negaverse.
He took a deep breath.
THe poor innocent civilian didn't deserve this. And he'd never done anything to help anyone back home, so maybe he could....
"Blossoming Order," he whispered, and to his delight, the field of flowers bloomed.
"Excuse me! Chaos Senshi! Please let that person go, if you would!"Quote: Sailor Scout Attack: Blossoming Order! Tianyi speaks the name of his attack, and in an eight-foot radius around him, a field of kerria flowers blooms. Those within the radius feel inclined to obey his words as they would a royal command, though this inclination can be overcome, particularly if the target is higher ranked than Tianyi or the order would cause the target to act against their nature or cause themself serious harm. Tianyi can use this magic three times per battle, and the spell lasts for 25 seconds.
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2025 1:27 pm
Ilmari needed to distinguish himself. He didn’t know what he would do, he didn’t know how he would pull this off, but he needed to do it. Proving himself worthy of more power would mean that he could do more for the Negaverse, for Metallia, for his team. Being more powerful like that—being able to better serve his team—felt so far beyond his grasp, and yet, Ilmari wanted it.
Besides, it was embarrassing, being such a weakling among much more powerful people who’d already done the hard work to earn such positions. Ilmari wasn’t the only one among their ranks still stuck with the power of a basic senshi or a Lieutenant, for the time being—but who knew how long that would last? Mirabilite hadn’t gone and ignored a direct order from Albite during the Whole Mess that had ensued while Faustite went in to get Heliodor back from his kidnappers (an order that Albite had given for the sake of their own safety, keeping the ones who couldn’t teleport safe). Surely, she would earn a promotion for herself in due time.
In the meantime, until he had any better ideas for how to distinguish himself and earn that kind of power, Ilmari kept very on top of his energy draining quota. Starseeds may not have been necessary—especially since, as a senshi, he wouldn’t get the same benefits out of it as Litharge or Jadarite or Faustite himself—and pulling them didn’t provide any new ideas. But it did make Ilmari feel better, in some way. Hence, why he’d crept up behind the person he’d spied in this alley and shoved his hand into their back (largely ignoring the feeling of a nearby Order aura because they were on his own level, so he didn’t think he needed to fear).
Ilmari was curling his hand around the prize when he felt something seize his mind. A feeling. A compulsion. Whatever it was, it made his breath hitch, and then came that order. Ilmari’s cheeks flushed hot and pink. While he didn’t let go of the starseed, as he’d been ordered to do, he couldn’t bring himself to pull it out. Struggling to do this thing he’d done so many other times before, he felt like he couldn’t move his arm. His fingers trembled from the effort to stay clenched around this idiot’s soul.
Turning back to look at whatever Order idiot had decided to ruin his night, Ilmari’s eyes went wide. The other senshi had to be one of those aliens Ilmari had seen around, given the ears, the horns, the swishing tail, and the little wings on his back. Ilmari narrowed his eyes as though that would do anything to hide how he was still blushing.
“Now, why would I want to go and do something like that,” he said, his voice straining as he tried to sound cool and collected. “What are you doing?”
A quick glance down let him see the flowers that had blossomed around this particular Order senshi, but they didn’t look familiar.
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2025 5:54 pm
Okay. So it wasn't a perfect success. But at least the Senshi had paused in whatever he was doing--which looked. Very Bad. That was a hand in that poor civilian's chest, and there was only one thing that could mean.
The thought of removing a starseed made Tianyi want to retch. It seemed, to him, an act of absolute, unquestioned evil--but that made it all the more important that he make this stop, however he could.
He drew himself up to his very not intimidating full height, and thought of Hongyun's powerful, imperious stare, and did his best to channel it, ears laying back and tail stilling behind him.
"You want to do that because I am ordering you to do that. Remove your hand from that poor person's chest and let them go." He was not going to explain what he was doing, lest it break the spell. "Now."
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2025 7:36 pm
No, the ******** I do not, Ilmari wanted to say.
What makes you presume you have the right to give me orders, he wanted to snap at this pretty shitty little interloper.
Are you offering up your own starseed as an alternative, then, he wanted to purr, to drawl even, as he strolled over closer to the aforementioned interloper and tilted his chin up just so. Because there’s a lot of use that the Negaverse could get out of magic like yours. Plenty of very powerful people who’d be interested in giving you a home there, so why not think about your best interests—which, in this case, just so happen to be mine—and join the winning side.
Instead, fighting the urge inspired by the other senshi’s order did utterly ******** all to help. Moving almost without him willing it, Ilmari’s hand uncurled from the civilian’s starseed. It slipped easily out of their chest. Scowling, he noted the lack of an order to be kind about letting the civilian s**t-head go, and gave them a firm shove. As they clattered to the ground, then scrambled off down the alley in a sequence that was only missing the ridiculous cartoon sound effects, Ilmari didn’t take his eyes off the other senshi.
“Y’know, I’ve got a friend who has a floral sphere for her magic,” he said and gestured at the flowers around the other senshi’s feet, the tone in his voice nowhere near as petulant and cranky as he was trying to force his face to stay. “But her attacks make people delirious for lost innocence and get them crying about the loves that got away. Which flower gave its senshi the ability to order people around like that? And why would you waste your magic on people who neither know nor care about you, like that idiot you just saved?”
Ilmari shrugged and pointed out, “They didn’t even hang around to say ‘thank you.’”
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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2025 9:06 pm
It had worked! Not as perfectly or neatly as Tianyi would have liked, and seeing the Chaos Senshi shove the poor civilian made him wince, but at least they were scrambling away alive. And once they were gone, he could put his attention fully on the person in front of him.
Pretty, some distant part of Tianyi thought, though he wasn't sure how he'd even want to follow up on that. He wasn't--well. That wasn't relevant.
Still, he couldn't help but feel proud of himself for what he'd accomplished already.
"Kerria flowers. Royalty, prosperity--and it's not about being thanked. Or about them caring about me at all." In the wider sense, he very much did not matter. "It's about protecting them. About doing the right thing." Finally. After failing to do that for so much of his life.
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 1:30 am
Feeling the other senshi’s magic start to fade from his mind, Ilmari could relax. Not so much so that he could truly feel okay right now, at this moment, when the orders the other senshi had given still burned electric beneath his skin and made him itch for some more of that. No matter what the other senshi wanted to ask of him—
Ilmari shook his head. The sharpness of the gesture, coupled with the swish of his long, thick hair on the back of his neck, helpfully banished the thought. This wasn’t the time for everything that magic had made him feel. Or for any of what it made him want.… Or made him feel like he wanted, anyway. Not actually wanting. Because Ilmari actually wanted to be a good member of his team, and that meant not getting distracted just because some Order senshi was cute and had very interesting magic.
“That sounds like a terribly sad way to live as a senshi,” Ilmari told the other senshi, folding his arms over his chest as though that would protect him from anything. “Putting yourself in harm’s way, over and over and over again, and never hearing a thank you from any of the people you want to protect? Or even protecting people who might not want you to be here? Plenty of people on this planet are terrible to other humans who just come here from different countries for work, or school, or family. They might be even worse to someone who came from another world entirely, even though you’re working so hard to help them.
“On top of that,” Ilmari tucked some loose hair behind his ear, “why is it a wrong thing to get the appreciation that you deserve for what you do?”
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 2:14 am
"Why do you care?" Tianyi asked, and then he winced, realizing how that must have sounded. "I'm sorry, I just--we're enemies, aren't we? I just made you give up your target. So...surely it shouldn't matter to you whether people thank me. Or whether they like me at all."
Frankly, Tianyi preferred that person running away. Having to listen to awkward thank yous sounded awful.
"And, anyway....I'd rather no one knew what I do. Let them tell themselves it was just a dream, or something. I don't need to be the center of attention." And he very, very much did not want to be, either. The longer he stayed quiet and unassuming, the longer it would take for things to go bad.
People would probably come to hate him here, just like they had at home. Because there was something inherently poisonous about him, something that made him...wrong.
"It's not wrong for other people to want appreciation. But I don't. I don't want to be anyone's symbol anymore."
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 3:51 pm
“Why do you care if I care.” The retort was neither particularly deep nor particularly mature, and Ilmari recognized that. But also, he didn’t want to think about the question that the other senshi had asked. The answer felt……perilous, even without Ilmari knowing what it was. “If we are only enemies—if I’m just some kind of monster to you—then why do you care at all what I think?”
Ilmari wrinkled his nose bemusedly, tilting his head as though it might make the Order senshi before him make more sense. It didn’t, but he kept watching the other for a long moment, in the hopes that something might click for him. Something that entered his head and made all of this with the other senshi slot itself into place in a way that clarified everything about what was going on with the other senshi and what his deal was. That he wasn’t attacking Ilmari outside of the one time potentially boded well for making an informant out of him, even if Ilmari didn’t understand him.
But that would take work. They’d already met on a sour note. Ilmari would need time to win this other senshi over, to make him see Ilmari as someone trustworthy (which clearly was not universally necessary, considering Faustite had gotten that loudmouth skank in the detached kimono sleeves to be his informant and Faustite’s general way of conducting himself didn’t seem particularly geared toward subtlety… But this space-born senshi was different from Murikabushi, who probably didn’t respond to anything appropriately, and thus, different tactics were needed). In the meantime……in the short term—
“If you want me to just go away,” Ilmari said, not quite gently but also not aggressively, “then say the word and I’ll be gone.”
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2025 8:47 pm
"That isn't what I said," Tianyi corrected, softly. "The circumstances of things on Earth make us enemies, of a sort. But I don't think you're a monster."
If either of them was, the pretty little royal who had blissfully danced through a happy, privileged life while his people starved was probably it, truth be told. But this Senshi didn't know about that, and frankly, Tianyi didn't want to tell him. The fewer people who knew, the better, because maybe if Tianyi could leave the past behind, he could build something better here.
(Except that he could not leave the past behind. Not when it insisted on coming back to him every night.)
"I think," he said, gently, "that it is indeed best if we part ways for now. But please, consider...if you choose to harm others, you may find that it comes back on you."
Even if you didn't know what you were sowing. Even if you didn't know what your life was built on.
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