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 Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2025 5:57 pm
Another uneventful patrol found Sailor Tempesti wandering through one of the larger parks in her neighborhood with her nosy wisp companion in tow. She’d all but given up on figuring out what the strange little being wanted, it didn’t seem hostile and didn’t carry a Chaotic energy signature so that was enough for her to give it the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it wasn’t bad company and its antics were a good evening’s entertainment during slower times. A raccoon skittered past, throwing a suspicious look at the senshi and the lavender entity as it hauled a surprisingly full fast food bag past them and into a nearby hedge that ensured that it wouldn’t have to share its bounty with the newcomers. Laughing softly, Tempesti continued her patrol. Minutes passed in a warm quiet, the only energy she felt was a strengthening Order presence. Passing through a lightly wooded space, she scanned the area on the off chance that she could catch a glimpse of whoever was nearby.
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2025 4:53 pm
The sound was more notable than the energy signature–signatures, because a youma energy flared right next to the Eternal Senshi’s. The nearer she got, the louder the scuffle. Leaves rustled. A branch snapped. Something was croaking low, bellowing.
“Give me a minute!”
Alastor felt her energy signature well before he saw her, and it was hardly pride that required him to announce that he did not need help.
On the contrary, he was enjoying himself, but the people of Earth didn’t enjoy a good fight like the people of Alastor, so he needed to make it clear that he did not need help.
The youma was two heads taller than him, with a long neck and long limbs, and a face like a crocodile that was currently trying to snap his head off. The youma’s tail might once have been functioning but now it dangled limply, like all the bones in it had broken. It stood like a man, but its feet looked like they should belong to a velociraptor, and its fingers were long and bony and very broken.
Alastor wrestled with the youma, palm to palm and fingers laced in a test of strength it was losing. It pushed forward but could make no ground, so reared its long snout back and tried to slam it down atop Alastor’s head, but the movement was enough that it lost its balance.
It stumbled backwards, tripping over its own tail, and Alastor had the opening he needed. He pushed it forward, building up momentum, and slammed it full force into a tree while it still scrambled to find purchase.
The youma exploded into a haze of black dust in an instant, leaving only Alastor there, panting. His hair was messy and his face was flushed but he bore no obvious injuries.
And, more than that, his eyes sparkled as he stood upright while brushing his hands off on the fabric of his pants.
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2025 10:59 am
It had never been in Sailor Tempesti’s nature to withhold aid when the situation dictated, but the other senshi clearly had an aptitude for combat that was entirely lost on her. She couldn’t help but recognize that if she attempted to intervene she would be more of an inconvenience than a help, so she lingered somewhat awkwardly just beyond the edge of the fray. The ferocious dexterity with which he dispatched the youma was awe-inspiring and unsettling in equal measure. “That was…impressive,” the compliment was sincere, despite the foreign and slightly unnerving joy he took in battle. Whether or not Tempesti would ever be able to share that enthusiasm for fighting, she admired his skill and could even admit to a little bit of envy at the easy confidence with which he moved. “Are you alright?”
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Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 6:53 pm
“Very good, thank you,” he answered brightly. He flashed her a quick smile but made quick work of wiping his sleeve across his forehead, and then he undid his hair, smoothed his fingers through it, and began to tie it up again.
“It was a good fight. I wish it’d lasted a bit longer, but I suppose it’s best to just be glad it’s one less youma to worry about. I hope you won’t think me selfish for hogging the fight. I needed to burn off a little energy.”
Looking a little more presentable now, he crossed the distance between her and offered his hand. “I’m Alastor, nice to meet you.”
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 7:29 pm
Now that he was no longer grappling a disgruntled youma, Tempesti was able to fully appreciate the beautifully meticulous details of the stranger’s fuku. It was surprising that someone who so clearly relished what thrills battle could bring him would be stuck wearing something that looked so confining. For what felt like the thousandth time she found herself wondering if the Galaxy Cauldron had some not quite mean sense of humor. “Don’t worry about me, I could tell that you had that fellow handled.” The senshi decided to omit her own generally conflicted feelings about fighting. After all, it wasn’t like they prevented her from addressing threats as she found them. Taking his hand with a warm smile she replied, “Tempesti, nice to meet you too.”
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2025 11:40 pm
Alastor laughed, light but not reserved. He shook her hand, glad that Earth and Alastor had so many familiar customs so he did not have to consider which to use.
“Have you seen too many of them out tonight? There have been a few in the area over the last week.” He didn’t say ‘that one was my favorite’ because he guessed by Tempesti’s tempered response that she might not have thought any battle deserved to be favored.
That was okay. He understood.
One of Alastor’s customs that did not translate so well to Earth.
“I’ve started to wonder if there’s something going on around here that they might be interested in,” he shared, but tilted his head slightly to the side to inquire if Tempesti might have observed anything of the kind.
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2025 11:16 pm
“I dusted one maybe an hour ago, it wasn’t exactly a strong one though. I almost felt bad for it.” She offered a sheepish smile with the admission. It seemed likely that even if Alastor didn’t come from a warrior culture he fell into that category somehow. No matter how foreign the concept might be to her, she definitely respected his skill. Even if it was a bit intimidating when she thought about her own shortcomings in that area. “If you mean the youma, I’m not really sure. I think they really just don’t like senshi and maybe they come looking for a fight. Did you mean close to where we are or in the city in general?” Kyuseisha no Hikari Sorry for the delay, my brain's been about 90% dialup noises lately
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2025 8:41 pm
“Don’t feel bad for them,” Alastor insisted, but not unkindly. “Better to remove them from the city than to let them hurt someone innocent. Even if it is only in a youma’s nature, you wouldn’t let a feral bear loose, would you?”
Sometimes malice might not have been the intention, but harm was the outcome anyway. Better to avoid what you could.
Alastor didn’t wait for an answer; the question had been rhetorical. He did however, answer hers. “A few times now I’ve seen youma here specifically. I’ve been around the area, there doesn’t seem to be much of it? Not much energy to gather, no buildings, no people. Maybe I’m overthinking it,” he shrugged. “Maybe it’s just coincidence. But, you don’t live as long as I have by being reckless all the time.”
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Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2025 5:41 pm
Tempesti nodded, “Of course.” She sighed, “That’s why I do it. I just…wish that it wasn’t necessary.” The youma she’d encountered, even the seemingly intelligent ones, were thoroughly disinterested in anything resembling conversation. They might consider one with someone they considered an ally, but she was decidedly not on that list. This area wasn’t a place she patrolled regularly, but from what Alastor said, it sounded like it should be. She scanned the area reflexively despite the fact that she didn’t currently feel any Chaos energy signatures nearby. “I’ll have to come through here more often, see if I see anything unusual.” Chewing idly on her lower lip as she thought as she continued, “Do you know of any other areas where they like to gather?”Kyuseisha no Hikari Sorry for the delay! Between IRL, COVID, and the ORPs I've been running I didn't realize how long it had been.
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Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2025 6:23 am
Alastor shrugged, not at all dismissively, but in the way one might expect someone to do when they were trying to decide if how much they wanted to say. It wasn’t all that Alastor was unwilling to divulge the information, only that he seemed to have quite a bit of it.
“There’s an old parking garage, maybe twenty minutes from here. I guess it was supposed to be demolished but no one ever got around to it. It’s got red paint all over the side. I haven’t been by that area and not found at least one youma, but usually two is common. Likewise, there’s a dumpster, hm,” he looked at the sky, searched the stars, and then gestured vaguely east, “That way, on the other side of town. It’s the one with the yellow logo that looks like it’s melting. I’m sure it’s nothing,” he said, sounding like someone who was not actually sure it was nothing, “but I’ve seen a lot over there. Some even seem to follow the trucks. But I've been keeping too busy to look into it. If you’d like to investigate, be my guest. I’d like to know what’s going on.”
He brushed his hands off on his uniform, apparently still in a good mood from his tussle with the youma.
“...Have you ever met one you could save?” he asked after a second. “I’ve heard–rarely–you can bring a youma back. That it takes a lot of work, a lot of energy–that the conditions have to be just right. I’ve never met a youma like that. But I have heard of someone that came back from it.” He shrugged. “Sorry, that’s probably a dangerous topic, too. You’ll probably wind up getting hurt trying to save something that’s long gone if you think too much about it. But, it’s interesting nonetheless.”
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2025 8:40 pm
As concerning as Alastor’s information was, Tempesti’s own curiosity found the element of mystery tantalizing. Despite how many youma she’d seen since her first encounter nearly a year earlier, she didn’t feel any closer to understanding how they thought. Anything that carried the potential to give her greater insight into the strange beings was something worth investigating. She did carry more than a little bit of pity for them, faced as they were with a nature that demanded predation. Though she couldn’t guess how much any of them struggled with that reality. A lion didn’t think anything of eating a gazelle, after all. And if they were following trucks? Whether they led to some Chaos operation or the youma just wanted to feed on the drivers it couldn’t hurt to look. “Do you think the trucks belong to their…supervisors?” She still didn’t quite have the vocabulary to describe whatever went on with those people. But that shortcoming vanished immediately at what the other senshi said next. “You…someone can save them?” Her eyes were no doubt comically large at the suggestion. “How?
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Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2025 4:57 pm
Alastor shrugged, not because it wasn’t an interesting conversation,he thought little of the conversation but instead because it was so important. “Sometimes,” he answered, wanting to temper her enthusiasm for the subject.
“Rarely, I suppose I should say, but I don’t know the exact specifics. I imagine it’s hard to collect accurate data and calculate statistics. But I do know that there are youma that have been saved. Most of them, from what I gather, are too broken, too consumed by Chaos, to have anything left to save. But they do exist–the ones that have enough sense of self to be saved. I can’t imagine it’s easy, not with Metallia breathing down your neck. But the Chaos can be purged from them, if they want it. It’s not easy.”
He shifted positions, hands planted on his hips as he mulled over the most abbreviated version to share with her. “I heard of one–he was just a normal person, I suppose. And it took a Court, and a Princess, to work that Chaos out of him. But his starseed recovered. Enough that he was able to awaken, too–a senshi. So don’t lose faith. Even if they can’t all be saved, some of them can be. You just have to curb your expectations if you’re still hoping to save them all. I don’t think anyone’s figured out a way to do that yet.”
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2025 10:48 pm
Tempesti nodded, she hadn’t expected that it would be common to save a youma and certainly not easy. If it was either of those things she had to imagine that there would be far less of them. Still, the mere fact that it was possible was more than she had dared to hope, even if the power required was well beyond anything she could manage. She’d only ever met a princess in passing but if she could be backup for something like that, connecting with one of them definitely seemed like a good idea. If she could figure out where to find them, anyway. “I know there’s no saving them all,” the admission left her expression tinged with a shade of melancholy, “But until right now I had no idea there was anything to be done for any of them. It’s amazing.” She knew that she had to sound particularly naïve to someone as experienced as Alastor but there was no hiding her excitement, tempered as it might be by the gap between her own abilities and what helping a youma required.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2025 5:49 am
If Alastor thought her naive, it did not reflect on his face or in his voice. Instead, he regarded her with something that passed for a kind smile. For as much as he liked his fights, he would not sacrifice someone’s autonomy to have them–especially if they were already fighting for themselves and their freedom.
“Worth keeping in mind,” he said, with the weight that it deserved. If you ever get lucky–if you find a youma that you think wants to be saved, maybe can be, let me know. I can get some people together that might be able to help.”
He wouldn’t hold his breath but Destiny City was a big place, and if it happened once, it could happen again. It was a goal worth aiming for. Better to have a difficult path you believed in than an easy one your heart wasn’t in.
“Of course, if you run into a youma–or anyone–that’s giving you a hard time, let me know then, too.”
If you couldn't save them, might as well enjoy the fight.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2025 7:50 pm
Tempesti smiled back at Alastor, appreciative of his understanding. Whatever completely reasonable skepticism he might harbor about the matter, she found the prospect of being able to help bring even one person back from that pit to be almost intoxicating. “Thank you, I don’t know anyone with that kind of power so that would be amazing. Even though I’ve still never seen a youma who was exactly in the mood to have a chat with me.”Knowing that some of them retained enough humanity that the right amount of magic could chase out the Chaos did deepen the sadness she felt at having no option but to hurt them. Nodding gratefully at the deep space senshi’s second offer she continued, “I really would appreciate the help, and if there’s any way I can help you out please let me know. Even if we can’t save every youma, it’s nice to know we can support each other.”
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