Third Journey :: Cosplay

[one_one_se7en]

He rises up through the stairs, his reticule levelled until his eyes readjust to the light, and sees instead masses of people... All dressed in curious regalia, reminiscent of the worlds he had explored, but in a more imitative style than cultural style he had seen in the nexii he had visited... Not to mention many of them seem to be feeding on snack foods rather than full meals they'd devour too quickly. Turning to the windows, he realizes it's a twentieth-first century Earth. No supernatural presences anywhere.

As he turns around, he realizes the cyan lines of the HUD are no longer there, and his eye level is lower. Something's off. Even as he walks, he doesn't so much hear thuds, but clicking. There is an advertisement on the wall about a “Convention” in oriental kanji, denoting the location as... Tokyo.

He puts a hand forward to lean on the wall to inspect the writing -- but the limb that moves forward is the delicate arm of a girl... and from the little he sees of the body, it's the gloved arm of a young senshi rather than the metal of the MJOLNIR.

...

He -rather, she- looks below.

"Not again."

Joan hears herself in a feminine voice.

Comments

[one_one_se7en]

"Thanks."

Her boot taps what could have been the head of the creature. It's inert. Even then, there was no need for confirmation; as soon as she stepped off the dead monster, its form began to dissolve into the familiar shape it had been created from... An imitation of her armor.

She frowns. As much as she grew to like using magic -feeling the sheer power flowing through her body and into an attack-, she preferred the MJOLNIR. Too many different tactics. Too many ways Senshi and Spartans differed in how they operated.

"Was that the training you thought of?"

[waterfell]

"No," Mercury, content to have already confirmed the kill, turns her attention to Sailor Reach. "This was an interruption."

There's a trace, just a trace, of annoyance. What was a youma doing here, challenging her, in the first place? Well; it met the fate its foolishness deserved.

"That youma was too bold, trying to challenge us."

[one_one_se7en]

"Then," she asks, her brown hair waving as she turns, "what is the training?"

The worn parody of his armor gets only a too brief glance. Joan was familiar with bold and foolish enemies. Sailor Reach was a little new to it. not that she would have rejected the opportunity.

[waterfell]

"There's a perfect place for it." She's definitely up to mischief, but at least it's the pranking sort rather than the malicious sort, this time.

"Shall we go?"

[one_one_se7en]

She turns to her as she smiles. Joan knows her enough to understand those smiles.

"... Yeah."

She's going to regret it.

[waterfell]

Mercury leads the way - releasing her transformation as soon as they might be seen.

She leads them to what seems to be a large warehouse, with a strange device already set up. Ami turns it on, and air pressure pushes out tiny papers.

She turns to Joan, and holds out a pair of chopsticks.

[one_one_se7en]

While Ami returns to her civilian form, Reach notices her body does not change. Most disturbingly... She was still Joan. In civilian clothes, and she was still Joan.

As long as this form lasted, she would have to learn more on how to use it.

.......

She stares at Ami. And at the chopsticks. Without lifting a finger. Wordlessly asking her if she is serious.

[waterfell]

Oh, she's serious. And it's not quite as strange as it seems.

"It's an exercise that can improve focus. Your mind should be concentrating only on this." And focus, that related to power.

[one_one_se7en]

"Zen."

Another thing Spartans constantly practiced for. They constantly meditate -hell, she sometimes got to contact other dreamers this way-, and even used some of that mental guidance for the MJOLNIR.

Joan feels cheated. And yet she picks one of the damned things.

[waterfell]

Though she's mostly teasing Joan by bringing her here, Ami does take a pair of chopsticks herself. She has decent success; she sometimes lacks the true emotional calm for this exercise, but she has excellent mental focus. The butterflies she reaches for generally end up in her grasp.

[one_one_se7en]

Mendez didn't only strengthen Joan's body, but her mind as well. Just as she was trained for the ways to fight and to make her stronger, the hours of meditation were just as important.

Time slows down for her. The butterflies move slowly enough for Joan to see their movement.

Then snatches one out of the air.

[waterfell]

[It's the sort of thing that requires that perfect focus - the very reason it had been considered training to awaken more of their power: That single-minded focus, that heart purely thinking only of one thing for that time.

Without the advantages of Spartan time, Ami has never found it a perfectly easy exercise. She does well enough, but not enough to be remarkable. After awhile, she stops and watches Joan instead.]

[one_one_se7en]

[--Unfortunately, the focus doesn't last as long. With a body different from that of a Spartan, eventually her focus has to shift, and her fingers turn a little clumsier.

Joan tries something different. He focuses on one at a time as they rise, catching them, ignoring the rest -- one by one, taking the bigger ones, and reducing their size as necessary.]

[waterfell]

[There's a sound that can only be laughter. It's definitely coming from Ami. While the exercise is one used in the senshi's past life, she'd mostly been teasing Joan with it.]

It would bother you to do less well than this, wouldn't it?

[one_one_se7en]

[She blinks. And slowly turns to her.]

... It would.

[Even as senshi, Spartans are competitive.]