[frontdated, updated, when-a-certain-post-is-done-dated]

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

She wasn’t sure where she wanted to be, but it wasn’t on this ship, which was as dark and strange and desolate as the Galaxy of her childhood. The Sensoriums – well, they were fake, but it was fine to pretend just for a little while, wasn’t it? As she stepped into room, it flickered between a handful of scenes she knew well: a stage humming with strings and gears, a small apartment in the city, a porch in front of a quiet koi pond, the flight deck of Mihoshi Academy, a recording studio overlooking Galaxy… but she dismissed each as quickly as it formed.

The shift of scene and color halted on a sprawling bedroom. It was unmistakably a young girl’s room: there was a pink-canopied four-poster and a matching vanity, with an impressive collection of stockings and dresses spread across the floor. She took a well-worn stuffed bear off the vanity and sprawled across the bed, fingers running over the familiar fabrics of the bear’s heart-shaped eyepatch and the bed’s soft cotton.

She had loved all those other scenes, but this was the first place she had fallen in love with, her first real, comfortable home. She half-expected Grace to walk through the door and scold her for the mess…

Sheryl pulled the bear into her arms and curled into the soft bedding. It was wrong to want Grace here with her, wasn’t it? She remembered, with painful clarity, Grace’s mocking Sheryl Nome is going to die, and her echoing orders from the Queen’s form. But Grace would know what to do, what Sheryl should do, in a place where her voice was useless.

She put two fingers to her throat and hummed, feeling the vibrations shiver down her fingertips. Lynn Minmay and Nekki Basara had it easy, didn’t they? Sing, and the Zentradi found culture. Sing, and the Protodevlin had left. And alongside Ranka-chan, her own voice had reversed Grace’s control over the Vajra – but it hadn’t done anything about that thing’s control over the man who’d died today.

And if it couldn’t do that, what would it do to the Ohm?

Comments

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

"...interesting choice of interior decorating."

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

She bolted upright -- she'd forgotten that, unlike her own room on Galaxy, this place was open. "Knock first!" she snapped.

[foreseen-future.livejournal.com]

Nura is for a moment taken aback by Sheryl's shout, but she quickly snaps out of it in a second, and puts her hands on her hips and snaps right back. "Well I tried, but the doors opened before I could do that!"

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"Seriously!" She dove back into the soft mattress, pulling one of the enormous pillows over her head. "This place is miserable!" she mumbled into the down.

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

Nura calms down and releases a sigh, folding her arms against her chest. "It isn't bad once you get used to the strange occurrences."

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"Being held hostage by a lunatic is just 'strange'?"

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

"To someone like me? No, it isn't strange."

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"There's no reason for a colony ship to be that disorganized!"

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

"To be fair, where I'm from, there were so many things that were disorganized." She shrugs her shoulders.

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"And I've seen almost every ship in the galaxy, and they all had real governments."

this might turn into a girl fight...

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

"Well, good for you!"

Re: this might turn into a girl fight...

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"It's awful." She hugged a pillow and the bear to her chest, glaring at the intruder in her bedroom. "What the hell is wrong with this ship?"

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

Nura wants to desperately roll her eyes, but she restrains the urge to. "There's nothing wrong with Stacy. Just some of the people aboard are the problems."

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"Then fix it."

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

"It isn't as easy as that."

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"No? Then work on it."

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

"Fine," she coolly says, temper risin, smile forced. "But you have to help as well."

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"I'm recuperating."

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

Sheryl may feel a dip in weight from the corner of the bed when Nura sits down.

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"Was I not clear? I don't want you here."

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

"You were as clear as crysteel."

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"My my," she smiled. "That means you should be going."

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

"Crysteel is about as clear as fog."

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"Then just get out already!"

[crysteel-future.livejournal.com]

Nura looks at the girl, thinking for a moment, then shrugging. "Fine." She gets up off the bed and moves toward the doors. She stops at the middle of the room and turns her head. "By the way, I'm not going to fix your little problems." A bright smile comes over her. "You can do that yourself, princess."

Then she leaves, out, down the hall, not even watching the doors close behind her.

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

Sheryl threw a pillow at the door, not terribly concerned about whether the woman on the other side heard it.

[ofgentlegreen.livejournal.com]

"Sheryl!"

Ranka had been looking for her nonstop ever since she heard the situation was over. She'd been in a constant state of panic ever since she found out Sheryl had been taken hostage, and it was painful knowing there wasn't much of anything she could do to help.

Most of that weight was lifted when she finally saw Sheryl safe. In retrospect, she realized she probably shouldn't have just barged into the room, but she knew Sheryl would forgive her.

...Well, hopefully, anyway.

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

She sat up at the sound of that familiar voice, forcing a smile. "Ranka-chan. It's good to see you again."

[ofgentlegreen.livejournal.com]

Ranka hugged her tightly for a moment. "I was so worried! Are you okay?"

[galacticfairy.livejournal.com]

"As though a guy like that could hurt me."

[ofgentlegreen.livejournal.com]

She smiled. "True. Not Sheryl Nome!"

Ranka took a moment to look around the room that had been constructed. "Is this your old room? From Galaxy?"