Sora Myoudouin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sunshine_maiden) wrote2013-01-22 11:39 pm
sunshine_maiden) wrote2013-01-22 11:39 pm
Sanctum 00 | Arrivals
((This is set during Sora's operation to fix the lingering nerve damage from her impromptu Shine Spark during that first sortie with the Ravens; while she's unconscious...))
It's dark. The last thing she remembers is the somewhat-mean doctor lady - Letriel, that was her name! - telling her she was going to get started, and then... darkness. She wasn't sure how much time had passed between then and now. But... she's starting to see something...
She's in... it looks like a greenhouse, not unlike the one Hana's grandmother runs. It's an open space, but... it's crowded. Sora has to do a double-take as she realizes that the handful of girls in the greenhouse look almost exactly like her. Different hair, different eyes, some have different builds, they're of different ages... but they're all her. She looks down at herself; she's in the skirt she'd dug out the other day, to her surprise, since that wasn't what she was wearing when she was conscious last. Was this a dream, then?
And then, just to throw her for a loop, the closest one - with dirty blonde hair and amber eyes - waves and walks over. "I wasn't expecting to see another one of us so soon! It's been a little busy around here, lately," she says, as if in greeting. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Itsuki. Itsuki Myoudouin."
Sora has no words for the mindscrew this represents, so she settles for raising an eyebrow; her double, whom she realizes is a few years younger than she is, laughs. "I haven't gotten a reaction like that before. You must be from one of the worlds where your name is something else and Itsuki is your name for something important. Am I right?"
The redhead finally finds her voice. "Y-yes... I'm Sora. Same last name, though. Itsuki is the Desu unit I fly. Well, the Itsuki Mk. II, now, but..."
The girl, Itsuki, seems surprised. "You're a pilot, then? That's pretty neat. I haven't had a pilot before, either. You're shaping up to be pretty interesting, Sora." She shakes her head. "Anyway, I'm sure you have questions. Let's see... This place is the Sunshine Sanctum. It exists to gather up all the girls of a specific type." Itsuki grins. "In particular, all the girls here have a similar 'origin' - we're all similar in features, we lead similar lives on our home worlds, we tend to know or get to know a few particular people. You could say we're all identical twin sisters to each other, except it goes deeper than that."
Sora shakes her head. "I get that we're all similar. But... similar lives? Similar friends? How would that work? Does everyone else I know have a gathering house like this?"
"Not necessarily," Itsuki conceded. "At least, not as far as I know. But let's put it this way. If I told you magic was real, what would you say?"
"I'd say 'of course it does, I fly a mech made of magitech.' I assume that's important?"
"I bet it has really great shields, it's bright yellow, and it's more powerful than the pink one and the blue one of the same kind, but they work together better. Am I right? Tell me I'm right," the girl almost sang.
The older girl couldn't help but suppress a wince. "Right on all counts, except we had a bit of a shake-up in the Project's leadership, so Eri took Desu Erika back to Fairy Park to help Professor Himesaki run things. And since Katsumi's still too injured to fly Desu Yuri, it's basically just Hana and I as partners. In more ways than one," she had to add with a slight blush, wondering if that factored in.
Her conversation partner had pulled a small notepad out of nowhere, not unlike she used to carry herself, and started to scribe. "That's kind of a crazy timeline... Moonlight actually injured, Marine gone, home base in Fairy Park... No issues with your relationship with what I assume is Blossom - that happens often enough, trust me. You look like you got in a fight with a flamethrower recently, too... but I won't ask about that," she finished, flipping the book shut. "Now... want to meet a few of the others?"
At a nod from the redhead, Itsuki led Sora around the greenhouse. It felt weird, walking through a building she knew, and yet it being slightly... different. And it wasn't long before they stopped in front of a girl with forest-green hair down to her shoulders, covering her eyes; she was looking over what Sora thought to be some kind of advanced math; she didn't recognize it. "Sora, this is Lin," Itsuki began, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "She's from a timeline where the Precure and the Desert Apostles fought for seven years before Dune finally made a move. By then, they'd grown so strong that even he was no match for them, and it was just... business as usual. Through experimentation with their magic, her team found a way to slow down aging. Lin's actually 26, but she looks like she's about your age, huh?"
Lin finally looked up, eyes the same shade as her hair seeming to pierce through Sora, before turning to the blonde. "You found another one, Itsuki? It's going to get crowded in here before too much longer."
"You know how it goes, Lin. There's always another world in need of the sun's light, right? Besides, I can't turn down a new arrival anyway," she added with a shrug.
"Yes, I remember..." Lin trailed off, giving Sora another look that set her on edge. "Those burns aren't an injury that would have made it through even the weakest Cure costume. How did you get them?"
Itsuki looked like she wanted to cut Lin off, but Sora beat her to it. "I, um, nearly killed myself trying to defend a fridnd's honor? I used an attack that was kind of like a charge with an Aegis in front of it, and I went through a localized nuclear explosion," she finished timidly. She remembered her friends' opinions on that action.
Lin and Itsuki looked at each other for a moment, before turning back to Sora with frowns. "One, that's a noble thing to do, but getting yourself killed isn't part of the bargain. Dial it back a bit next time," Lin advised. "Two, damn, that's some serious power, to cut through something like that. Good job, seriously." She flashed Sora the first smile the redhead had seen from her. "Just take it easy. Taking an attack like that head-on is something you don't do without consequences, and probably not more than once."
"Right. I'm not going to do that again," Sora insisted. "Probably. I don't want to make promises, knowing myself, but... I don't think it'll happen again."
"See to it that it doesn't. In any event, Itsuki, perhaps you should continue showing her around? It was nice to meet you, Sora, but I've got work to get back to; even though I look like this, I'm well into college, and my homework isn't going to do itself." Lin smiled a bit to take the sting out of it, but the message was clear: leave me alone.
"Good to meet you, Lin. I hope we meet again soon," Sora agreed, with a smile of her own, before giving a small wave and turning to Itsuki again. "How many girls are here?"
For a moment, the blonde considered the question. "It's hard to say, sometimes. Right now, just a few. When everyone that's been here before comes to visit, though... a few dozen? Of course, we still have lives to lead... and even the best magical girl - or pilot - can die. Not that death stops some of us." With that cryptic message, and some more dragging along, the girls moved through a bit further, to a large table that Sora recognized as the space they'd meet the Professor in. Here, though, they found another girl, closer to Itsuki's age. This one had hair a rich purple, running down to her knees, and when she turned, Sora saw eyes not unlike her own, a bright blue. What shocked her a little more, though, was that she seemed almost... softer. The apron covering her decidedly feminine clothing certainly helped that image, as did the pot of tea she'd been working at. "Kat, anything interesting happen while I was gone?"
"Hm? Itsuki? No, noth- ah!" The girl cut herself off, noticing the two weren't alone, and setting the tea down carefully, expression guarded as she shifted behind a chair. "W-who is that?"
Itsuki laughed lightly, before adding, "Sorry, sorry, I shouldn't be laughing, but this happens every time. You know not just anyone can get in here. Anyway, Sora, this is Kat, one of our more recent recruits. She comes from a timeline where her brother got better on his own, rather than having to be sick for as long as he did. So she took back the role as the younger sister, and became a little more traditional. And this is the result: one of us that got back to her roots a lot faster than the rest, and turned out pretty well for it, I think. Of course, she never developed the spine that comes with having to stick up for your entire way of life, in exchange. But it seems like a pretty good trade to me, if Kat's any indication." To the purple-haired girl, she added, "Kat, this is Sora. She's our newest addition. She's a pilot, and her mecha has all our usual skills. Sounds complicated to me, but then again, I'm pretty simple, right?"
The girl, Kat, smiled nervously. "Y-yeah, you are, Itsuki. U-um... nice to meet you, Sora." She offered a trembling hand to shake, which Sora took happily. "I k-know it's a little weird here, but you get used to it, after a little while. I-it's nice to have people that understand you, even if that's because they basically are you."
Sora couldn't help but smile at Kat; the girl reminded her of Hana a bit more than was perhaps prudent, but that was okay, considering Hana was getting better. "Nice to meet you as well, Kat. I'm hoping I can get along with everyone here... it's not looking that bad, so far."
Kat nodded. "R-right. There aren't that many girls here that are hard to get along with. A-and the ones that are, you'll know right away. I-I don't think you're one of those," she quickly added. "You seem like a good person to me."
"I like to think I am," Sora agreed, with a light laugh of her own. It quickly turned into a wince, though. "Okay, skin pulling a little more than I really want right now. Ow."
Oddly, Kat immediately moved to Sora's side, starting to fuss at her visible injuries. "You're hurt... are you all right? You look like you were in a fire, among other things. Is being a pilot really that d-dangerous?"
The redhead sighed. "I'm... well, I'm not fine, I guess. I think I'm in surgery right now to fix a few things from the last sortie I was in... I kinda scorched all my nerves, some worse than others, and I burned myself in a few places. It's not normally this bad, I just screwed up a little. I'll be okay."
Worried blue eyes looked back up at her. "If you say so. Please, be careful, Sora. Take it easy for a little while. Wounds like this can still heal, but if you're hurt any more... you're n-not going to make it back."
Sora couldn't help but lean back a little, Kat's sudden assertiveness a little odd. Itsuki seemed to notice, smiling a bit. "Oh right, I forgot to mention that. She's a little weird around people that are hurt; she pulls herself together, and it's almost like she's a different person. Maybe she'll get that healing spell working one day, then she can be a medic!"
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Sora agreed. "Maybe later we can try and work on it... I have a small spell put together, but it's not efficient at all..." She couldn't stop a yawn from coming out. "Mm, I'm tired all of a sudden..."
Itsuki glanced over, and her eyes widened a bit. "You said you were in for surgery, right? Maybe you're done. Normally, when you come here like this - if you end up here while you're sleeping, say - you fall asleep here when you wake up at home. Here, have a seat. You'll pop out of here once you fall asleep." The girl fished around in her pocket for something, Kat helping to guide Sora into a chair. "Hold on to this," Itsuki continued, holding out a sunflower pendant and pressing it into Sora's palm, wrapping the older girl's fingers around it. "Focus on that when you want to come back here. We'll be here. See you again soon, okay?"
Sora opened her mouth to say something in reply, but everything felt so heavy... she couldn't get anything out, so she settled for a smile as she fell asleep. When she woke up again, she was back in the infirmary, and sorely wishing she'd stayed asleep - even the worst "other her" couldn't possibly be more painful than the dull ache across her entire body.
((If Sora has the pendant still, she's not telling. Regardless, it won't affect her canon, aside from giving her weird friends to talk to while she's asleep or bored, and none of these other Itsukis, or anyone else from this crazy meta-world, are going to show up in UG@; Sora has enough problems as it is.))
It's dark. The last thing she remembers is the somewhat-mean doctor lady - Letriel, that was her name! - telling her she was going to get started, and then... darkness. She wasn't sure how much time had passed between then and now. But... she's starting to see something...
She's in... it looks like a greenhouse, not unlike the one Hana's grandmother runs. It's an open space, but... it's crowded. Sora has to do a double-take as she realizes that the handful of girls in the greenhouse look almost exactly like her. Different hair, different eyes, some have different builds, they're of different ages... but they're all her. She looks down at herself; she's in the skirt she'd dug out the other day, to her surprise, since that wasn't what she was wearing when she was conscious last. Was this a dream, then?
And then, just to throw her for a loop, the closest one - with dirty blonde hair and amber eyes - waves and walks over. "I wasn't expecting to see another one of us so soon! It's been a little busy around here, lately," she says, as if in greeting. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Itsuki. Itsuki Myoudouin."
Sora has no words for the mindscrew this represents, so she settles for raising an eyebrow; her double, whom she realizes is a few years younger than she is, laughs. "I haven't gotten a reaction like that before. You must be from one of the worlds where your name is something else and Itsuki is your name for something important. Am I right?"
The redhead finally finds her voice. "Y-yes... I'm Sora. Same last name, though. Itsuki is the Desu unit I fly. Well, the Itsuki Mk. II, now, but..."
The girl, Itsuki, seems surprised. "You're a pilot, then? That's pretty neat. I haven't had a pilot before, either. You're shaping up to be pretty interesting, Sora." She shakes her head. "Anyway, I'm sure you have questions. Let's see... This place is the Sunshine Sanctum. It exists to gather up all the girls of a specific type." Itsuki grins. "In particular, all the girls here have a similar 'origin' - we're all similar in features, we lead similar lives on our home worlds, we tend to know or get to know a few particular people. You could say we're all identical twin sisters to each other, except it goes deeper than that."
Sora shakes her head. "I get that we're all similar. But... similar lives? Similar friends? How would that work? Does everyone else I know have a gathering house like this?"
"Not necessarily," Itsuki conceded. "At least, not as far as I know. But let's put it this way. If I told you magic was real, what would you say?"
"I'd say 'of course it does, I fly a mech made of magitech.' I assume that's important?"
"I bet it has really great shields, it's bright yellow, and it's more powerful than the pink one and the blue one of the same kind, but they work together better. Am I right? Tell me I'm right," the girl almost sang.
The older girl couldn't help but suppress a wince. "Right on all counts, except we had a bit of a shake-up in the Project's leadership, so Eri took Desu Erika back to Fairy Park to help Professor Himesaki run things. And since Katsumi's still too injured to fly Desu Yuri, it's basically just Hana and I as partners. In more ways than one," she had to add with a slight blush, wondering if that factored in.
Her conversation partner had pulled a small notepad out of nowhere, not unlike she used to carry herself, and started to scribe. "That's kind of a crazy timeline... Moonlight actually injured, Marine gone, home base in Fairy Park... No issues with your relationship with what I assume is Blossom - that happens often enough, trust me. You look like you got in a fight with a flamethrower recently, too... but I won't ask about that," she finished, flipping the book shut. "Now... want to meet a few of the others?"
At a nod from the redhead, Itsuki led Sora around the greenhouse. It felt weird, walking through a building she knew, and yet it being slightly... different. And it wasn't long before they stopped in front of a girl with forest-green hair down to her shoulders, covering her eyes; she was looking over what Sora thought to be some kind of advanced math; she didn't recognize it. "Sora, this is Lin," Itsuki began, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "She's from a timeline where the Precure and the Desert Apostles fought for seven years before Dune finally made a move. By then, they'd grown so strong that even he was no match for them, and it was just... business as usual. Through experimentation with their magic, her team found a way to slow down aging. Lin's actually 26, but she looks like she's about your age, huh?"
Lin finally looked up, eyes the same shade as her hair seeming to pierce through Sora, before turning to the blonde. "You found another one, Itsuki? It's going to get crowded in here before too much longer."
"You know how it goes, Lin. There's always another world in need of the sun's light, right? Besides, I can't turn down a new arrival anyway," she added with a shrug.
"Yes, I remember..." Lin trailed off, giving Sora another look that set her on edge. "Those burns aren't an injury that would have made it through even the weakest Cure costume. How did you get them?"
Itsuki looked like she wanted to cut Lin off, but Sora beat her to it. "I, um, nearly killed myself trying to defend a fridnd's honor? I used an attack that was kind of like a charge with an Aegis in front of it, and I went through a localized nuclear explosion," she finished timidly. She remembered her friends' opinions on that action.
Lin and Itsuki looked at each other for a moment, before turning back to Sora with frowns. "One, that's a noble thing to do, but getting yourself killed isn't part of the bargain. Dial it back a bit next time," Lin advised. "Two, damn, that's some serious power, to cut through something like that. Good job, seriously." She flashed Sora the first smile the redhead had seen from her. "Just take it easy. Taking an attack like that head-on is something you don't do without consequences, and probably not more than once."
"Right. I'm not going to do that again," Sora insisted. "Probably. I don't want to make promises, knowing myself, but... I don't think it'll happen again."
"See to it that it doesn't. In any event, Itsuki, perhaps you should continue showing her around? It was nice to meet you, Sora, but I've got work to get back to; even though I look like this, I'm well into college, and my homework isn't going to do itself." Lin smiled a bit to take the sting out of it, but the message was clear: leave me alone.
"Good to meet you, Lin. I hope we meet again soon," Sora agreed, with a smile of her own, before giving a small wave and turning to Itsuki again. "How many girls are here?"
For a moment, the blonde considered the question. "It's hard to say, sometimes. Right now, just a few. When everyone that's been here before comes to visit, though... a few dozen? Of course, we still have lives to lead... and even the best magical girl - or pilot - can die. Not that death stops some of us." With that cryptic message, and some more dragging along, the girls moved through a bit further, to a large table that Sora recognized as the space they'd meet the Professor in. Here, though, they found another girl, closer to Itsuki's age. This one had hair a rich purple, running down to her knees, and when she turned, Sora saw eyes not unlike her own, a bright blue. What shocked her a little more, though, was that she seemed almost... softer. The apron covering her decidedly feminine clothing certainly helped that image, as did the pot of tea she'd been working at. "Kat, anything interesting happen while I was gone?"
"Hm? Itsuki? No, noth- ah!" The girl cut herself off, noticing the two weren't alone, and setting the tea down carefully, expression guarded as she shifted behind a chair. "W-who is that?"
Itsuki laughed lightly, before adding, "Sorry, sorry, I shouldn't be laughing, but this happens every time. You know not just anyone can get in here. Anyway, Sora, this is Kat, one of our more recent recruits. She comes from a timeline where her brother got better on his own, rather than having to be sick for as long as he did. So she took back the role as the younger sister, and became a little more traditional. And this is the result: one of us that got back to her roots a lot faster than the rest, and turned out pretty well for it, I think. Of course, she never developed the spine that comes with having to stick up for your entire way of life, in exchange. But it seems like a pretty good trade to me, if Kat's any indication." To the purple-haired girl, she added, "Kat, this is Sora. She's our newest addition. She's a pilot, and her mecha has all our usual skills. Sounds complicated to me, but then again, I'm pretty simple, right?"
The girl, Kat, smiled nervously. "Y-yeah, you are, Itsuki. U-um... nice to meet you, Sora." She offered a trembling hand to shake, which Sora took happily. "I k-know it's a little weird here, but you get used to it, after a little while. I-it's nice to have people that understand you, even if that's because they basically are you."
Sora couldn't help but smile at Kat; the girl reminded her of Hana a bit more than was perhaps prudent, but that was okay, considering Hana was getting better. "Nice to meet you as well, Kat. I'm hoping I can get along with everyone here... it's not looking that bad, so far."
Kat nodded. "R-right. There aren't that many girls here that are hard to get along with. A-and the ones that are, you'll know right away. I-I don't think you're one of those," she quickly added. "You seem like a good person to me."
"I like to think I am," Sora agreed, with a light laugh of her own. It quickly turned into a wince, though. "Okay, skin pulling a little more than I really want right now. Ow."
Oddly, Kat immediately moved to Sora's side, starting to fuss at her visible injuries. "You're hurt... are you all right? You look like you were in a fire, among other things. Is being a pilot really that d-dangerous?"
The redhead sighed. "I'm... well, I'm not fine, I guess. I think I'm in surgery right now to fix a few things from the last sortie I was in... I kinda scorched all my nerves, some worse than others, and I burned myself in a few places. It's not normally this bad, I just screwed up a little. I'll be okay."
Worried blue eyes looked back up at her. "If you say so. Please, be careful, Sora. Take it easy for a little while. Wounds like this can still heal, but if you're hurt any more... you're n-not going to make it back."
Sora couldn't help but lean back a little, Kat's sudden assertiveness a little odd. Itsuki seemed to notice, smiling a bit. "Oh right, I forgot to mention that. She's a little weird around people that are hurt; she pulls herself together, and it's almost like she's a different person. Maybe she'll get that healing spell working one day, then she can be a medic!"
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Sora agreed. "Maybe later we can try and work on it... I have a small spell put together, but it's not efficient at all..." She couldn't stop a yawn from coming out. "Mm, I'm tired all of a sudden..."
Itsuki glanced over, and her eyes widened a bit. "You said you were in for surgery, right? Maybe you're done. Normally, when you come here like this - if you end up here while you're sleeping, say - you fall asleep here when you wake up at home. Here, have a seat. You'll pop out of here once you fall asleep." The girl fished around in her pocket for something, Kat helping to guide Sora into a chair. "Hold on to this," Itsuki continued, holding out a sunflower pendant and pressing it into Sora's palm, wrapping the older girl's fingers around it. "Focus on that when you want to come back here. We'll be here. See you again soon, okay?"
Sora opened her mouth to say something in reply, but everything felt so heavy... she couldn't get anything out, so she settled for a smile as she fell asleep. When she woke up again, she was back in the infirmary, and sorely wishing she'd stayed asleep - even the worst "other her" couldn't possibly be more painful than the dull ache across her entire body.
((If Sora has the pendant still, she's not telling. Regardless, it won't affect her canon, aside from giving her weird friends to talk to while she's asleep or bored, and none of these other Itsukis, or anyone else from this crazy meta-world, are going to show up in UG@; Sora has enough problems as it is.))