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 Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2025 5:11 pm
2025 Winter Holiday Prompt Snow Glow (15) : On especially cold nights, strange puffs of light rise from the snow like warm steam--only this 'steam' glows in soft, sparkling colors and moves in slow, liquid shapes, like wax escaped a lava lamp and is rising towards the sky. Scientists insist it’s an unusual, but natural, phenomenon caused by pressure and temperature changes, but that doesn’t explain how the lights react when you reach for them--swirling around your fingers like playful, weightless ribbons. Sometimes, around these strange pockets, the snow beneath your feet glimmers when you step near the lights, and coming into contact with the glow results in it clinging to your skin or clothes in faint, shimmering patches. The luminescent residue fades after a few hours and has no lasting effects.
When he stopped to admire the view of the city from a rooftop, he noticed that weird, colored, glowing steam rose from the snow blanketing everything. He thought he'd heard about people talking about the phenomenon before, but had never gotten a chance to see it for himself. It was supposed to be natural, but how, then, did it get so colorful? It reminded him of what had looked to be fairy lights showing up everywhere during the Star Festival.
Ever curious, Sinope tried to reach for a puff of light or steam or whatever it was as it drifted near him on its way upward into the sky. Instead of dispersing, however, as he thought it would, it swirled around his hand and fingers and then clung to his skin, causing it to glow.
"Whoa," he said softly, touching the luminescent substance. It wouldn't rub off, however. He hoped it wasn't anything bad, like energy-sapping Negaverse stuff, but it certainly seemed harmless enough...
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 6:52 am
It was a particularly freezing night in Destiny City and Sinope had learned to do more than simply trust that his magical outfit...
Tetra wasn't one to be distracted very easily when given a task. In fact, the biggest issue often is that he becomes so overtly anxious about that one task, that he might worry himself into doing it too much. It was a habit that only visits him on occasion now. Especially with his Fiancee almost always there to be an anchor and supporter for his racing thoughts.
The other had always been so patient and caring with helping Tetra adjust to their new life here in a country, and their new work as negaverse agents. Patroling and working together always ended up putting Tetra to ease by the end of the day. Today though, while the other was busy researching on better ways to extract energy. Tetra saw the opportunity to practice doing things alone. His fiancee was the busier one out of the two, and he didn't want to put himself in a position where he was helpless without him. He had to grow too, afterall. And if he improved himself, indirectly - hopefully , he'd be able to make his fiancee's life easier too.
After giving the other a goodbye kiss, he changed from his civilian clothes to his agent uniform, and headed out for a quick patrol.
The plan was to be out at least an hour, avoid touching random things he found on the floor, and hopefully - he's able to work through his anxiety and go home when the hour is up. Though the night gives a sense of peace with how quiet it is, the early minutes of his patrol involved tensing at moving shadows, and freezing at any sudden sound.
He took a break in an alleyway, behind a building he didn't recognise. Leaning against the wall, and steadying his breath. What he expected to be a predictable 5 minutes of just deep breathing, instead turned into another challenge for his anxious mind. As small. almost lava-lamp like things started... popping out of the ground, he stood defensively for a moment. Assessing if it was dangerous before calming down and staring at it as it slowly rised up, like it was reaching for the skies. Tetra held 'Samantha' close to his chest for a moment before deciding to see where that strange fluid was going.
With his new enchanced abilities, he jumped on anything he could to push himself up from the ground, closer to the rooftoop of the building, trying to follow the floating liquid at a close distance. Just as he got on the roof though, he took his eyes off the floating liquid at stood tensely frozen, noticing he was not the only person here.
"S-sorry" he took a step back instinctively, " I- I didn't know anyone was up here.. " his eyes widened, noticing a similar looking liquid floating further from where the stranger was standing. Blinking at how the others hand seemed to glow. "*O-Oh..was that.. your doing? The um uh- pretty.. floating.. coloured... water.. thing..*?". He had momentarily forgotten how to create a cohesive sentence in English.
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 6:55 am
As soon as the lieutenant jumped up from below, Sinope startled backward, falling on his butt in the snow that had blanketed the rooftop. That caused a whole surge of glowing, colored 'steam' to bubble up from under him and start to cling to him and his clothes with its luminosity. But he was too busy staring at the Negaverse agent in front of him to notice.
He had been so curious and fascinated by the phenomenon with the floating liquid-like steam shapes that he had completely forgotten to check his surrounding for unfamiliar energy signatures. Not to mention the lieutenant's was relatively weak due to having much less chaos energy than his own, so perhaps that was another reason he hadn't really sensed him at first. Still, the lieutenant surprised him with his first, stuttered word: an apology.
Clearly, this guy was new. New enough not to have known who Sinope was, anyway, which the Dark Mirror Senshi was grateful for. That probably also meant he didn't know Faustite or had any connection to him. Still, he decided to remain wary. There was always a chance the lieutenant could have just been pretending to be innocent, naïve, and nice.
"...It's okay," Sinope murmured flowly, picking himself up off the ground and trying to dust the snow off of him. He seemed to be trying to convince himself of that sentence just as much as the stranger, however. "I was just startled is all." It was then that he realized the colorful luminescence had clung to him and would not come off with the snow. He could only hope it wouldn't be permanent. He didn't want to walk around in public glowing like a colorful neon sign. It wouldn't have been much good for him as a senshi, either.
"Huh?" He looked at his hand when the stranger commented on the glowing phenomenon being his doing. "Oh! No, no, this isn't me," he assured him quickly, waving his palms in front of him. "I just saw this stuff flowing into the air from the snow and tried to touch it and then...well, now it looks like it's sticking to me. At least the colorful, glowing stuff is." He paused, blinking. "So, wait - this isn't the Negaverse's doing, either? You're not, uh...using it to collect energy from people or anything?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 7:53 am
His eyes widened in worry as the other fell into a pile of snow. He stepped a bit closer, ready to assist if he was needed. But it seemed the other managed to pick him up well. " S-sorry for scaring you then.." he said, looking guilty.
He shaked his head at the question if the negaverse was doing this. " I... uh.. I wasn't told anything. " he blinked at the mention of collecting energy and frowned in worry. " O-oh uh.. I hope not...I'm not .. sure? Do you feel like it? Are you feeling tired? Ticklish? Hurt?" Tetra took another step closer, his gaze assesing the other in concern.
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 4:25 pm
"It's alright," Sinope assured him. "I should have been more alert. I didn't even sense you so close until you were practically in my face."
The strange lieutenant's questions made Sinope laugh. "I feel fine," he said, looking himself over. "And if you weren't told anything either, might just be another weird quirk of Destiny City. Pretty, though."
He looked back at the young man to regard him curiously. The guy seemed very big and tall, but Sinope also guessed them to be maybe around the same age. He could have been wrong, though. It was hard to tell with glamours.
"So...what's your name, big guy?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 4:48 pm
Lt. Tetrataenite Sara Kohana└── •✧• ──┘ He let out a sigh of relief, though the worry hadn't faded from his eyes. " Okay... that's good.. Um .. but you..look a little.. glowy.. is it .. not .. uncomfortable?" Tetra nodded at the mention of how weird Destiny City. " ahah.. yeah I am uh.. beginning to learn this city offers.. surprises. " " M-me..? O-oh.. my name is .. Tetrataenite .. s-sorry it's a .. pretty long name. Um.. do you ming if I ask .. yours..?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 5:28 pm
"No, I think the glowing just looks funny. I don't think it does anything to me. Thanks, though." The stranger seemed oddly considerate for a Negaverse agent. Maybe even a little too considerate. So much seemed to make him nervous with worry.
"You haven't been here long?" Sinope asked, surprised. Well, that explained a lot. He probably hadn't been awakened very long ago, either.
Was he nervous because of what he had learned as a Negaverse agent about Destiny City and the forces beyond it? Or was he just naturally that way? Sinope was inclined to believe the latter was more likely. Even if he didn't like the Negaverse all that much.
"I don't mind long names. I know someone whose name is Sailor Ptolemaeus, so I'm used to it. I think I'll call you Tetra for short, though," he decided. "And I don't mind. I'm Sailor Sinope, Super Dark Mirror Senshi of Slyness. Just Sinope is fine, though."
He muttered, "Sly Secret Steal," under his breath and then winked at Tetra.
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 5:31 pm
Lt. Tetrataenite Sara Kohana└── •✧• ──┘ He shakes his head gently " N-no.. I'm not from .. uh .. around.. here until recently". The words came out before he could stop them, but it was too late. Was that too much information to share with the stranger? He was too used needing to explain himself as a civilian that he wasn't originally from Destiny City. But in the end figured that it was information that wasn't hard to put together anyway - even if tetra didn't say anything. He blinked at the mention of such a long name. " Pto..le..ma..eu.. s.." he tried slowy, thankful the others name wasn't as hard to pronounce. " Oh.. yeah Tetra is okay.." Tetra bowed his head slightly out of respect at the other revealed his name. " Nice to meet you, Sai- uh.. Sinope." He was about to ask further about being a senshi of slyness, just to not awkwardly stand around and have silence fill up their conversation instead, but suddenly his eyes widened. Hit by a wave of unease all the sudden. Huh. What was this? What little ease he had gathered from his short talk with Sinope was now thrown out the window. He tightened his hold on his plushie, hugging it like it was his only support. His shoulders taunt with tension as he fought to remain where he stood instead of stepping back. His narrowed eyes set itself upon Sinope. Eitherway Tetra seemed indecisive and at lost at what to do - but something did happen. Or at least, he thought something had happened. " ...S-sorry.. have we met before....?..?" He decided to ask tensely, not trusting his own gut feeling that came out of nowhere.
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 5:32 pm
"'Tol-eh-MAY-us,'" Sinope repeated, sounding out the name for Tetrataenite with a laugh. "And nice to meet you too, Tetra."
He watched as his senshi magic hit the Negaverse agent, wondering how such a person would react to it. Most people got angry with him and some had even been violent or manhandled him in the past. This man, however, despite his large size and intimidating default expression, tightened his grip on his ridiculous-looking spherical plushie. It appeared to be something like a round cat that had just swallowed a beach ball while wearing a shark costume. Sinope didn't get it, but then again, he didn't get a lot of Negaverse things. Regardless, Tetra clung to it like it was his greatest source of comfort; as if he were a child.
Sinope kept a steady smile on his face but chose not to use his super senshi attack. Having used his normal senshi one had seemed risky enough. Still, it was enough to have done the trick, looked like. And yet, when Tetra spoke again, he stammered as if as uncertain and insecure than ever, even continuing to be polite rather than angry and choosing to apologize rather than accuse. Sinope burst into a small bout of laughter.
"No, we haven't," he chuckled. "I'd definitely have remembered someone as funny as you." Tetra reminded him a little of the characters of Ouran High School - as mature and intimidating-looking as Takashi Morinozuka, but as childish-seeming and plushie-loving as Mitsukuni Haninozuka. How peculiar.
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 5:32 pm
Lt. Tetrataenite Sara Kohana└── •✧• ──┘ " Tol - eh- MAY.. us.. ptolemaeus.. ah.. thank you" he said gently appreciative Sinope helped. While Sara was taunt with tension and anxiety, Sinope seemed to find amusement in his question than anything. " Funny...?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 5:33 pm
"No problem," the senshi answered with a grin. "But you should be more careful who you get so friendly with. Some people can and will take advantage of you if you're that nice to them without trying to determine whether they're a friend or foe first. I wanted to test to see how you would react to my senshi magic...but it seems you really aren't the sort to like violence or to be quick to anger, huh?"
He smirked, tilting his head at Tetra. "Interesting...that's not what I would have guessed by looking at you. But I suppose that's why it's said not to judge a book by its cover."
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 5:34 pm
Lt. Tetrataenite Sara Kohana└── •✧• ──┘ " oh it was... magic..? Was that why I felt .., uh.. wary.. of you? What if I was angry then.. would you have been hurt? You were trying to see if I was a friend or for..? I.. I thought the negaverse and dark mirror senshi had a neutral relationship? " " oh... .. about ..being funny?" He asked when the other brought up judging books by its cover.
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 5:35 pm
Sinope grinned wider. "Yeah, it was senshi magic. It makes you think I know the thing about you that you least want me to know. But don't worry; I don't."
His brows shot up. "Oh, so you know about the relationship between the Negaverse and our court." He chuckled and looked away, but his amusement was noticeably much less. "Not everyone cares about the neutrality thing, though. I knew a Negaverser who killed people I loved just because he hated me." Pausing, he murmured, "I wonder if that's why he killed them instead of just getting rid of me directly...because it would have gone against the order that we're not supposed to harm each other."
He shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts. "Anyway...yeah. I wanted to see what you'd do. And if you tried to hurt me...heh. Well...not like I'm not used to it by now. Especially with magic like mine."
He looked back at Tetra's final question. "Well...no. I guess more about...seeming dangerous. Or intimidating."
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 5:35 pm
Lt. Tetrataenite Sara Kohana└── •✧• ──┘ " Oh.. I see.. it's just.. magic. " Tetra looked at Sinope for a moment as if trying to assess to trust his words or not. " .. okay, I believe you.. since you look like you're telling the truth.. at least to me you are" Tetra froze, immediately frowning deeper. Distressed. despite how the other appeared seemingly casual about bringing it up. Both at the reveal and the idea that the person who did that could be his peer, or boss. " that's.. thats awful.. going after someone important to someone.. as a way to harm you..that person.. they got .. away with something like that..?" " wanted to see what... I'd do..? But it could've gone horribly wrong.. you're willing to put yourself in harms way just to know .. how people react?" Tetra wished he couldn't believe someone would do that if it weren't for his fiancee doing similar things before. " Ah.. I see.. " Tetra tensed and looked at the ground, " so.. what.. do you..think of me now..?" He asked hesitantly though curious
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2026 5:36 pm
Sinope stared at Tetra, flabbergasted, before bursting into more laughter. "I just tricked you with my magic and yet you believe what I'm telling you? Because I look like I do? A senshi in a fox-eared hood?" he laughed. "What about me looks trustworthy to you?"
His laughter died down as Tetra commented on what had happened to him. "Yeah, well...I wasn't exactly blameless, so I guess I had something coming...I just didn't think it would go that far, heh..." Though he tried to sound light-hearted about it, his smile and chuckles became strained.
"And yeah, they got away with it. Law enforcement can't really do anything unless they have powers like senshi, knights, and Negaverse agents do. But for all their talk of justice, the White Moon doesn't really care." His words were bitter as he looked away over the tops of the other roofs. "They were a Negaverse agent. Like you. The one who killed my parents." He shrugged. "But no use crying over spilt milk, right?"
Grinning again when the lieutenant commented on how things could have gone wrong, he answered, "Sweet of you to care, but it's gone wrong enough times that I was prepared for that. You don't go this long having a power like this without guessing that sort of thing might happen and making sure you can handle it before trying it again." His expression softened as he studied Tetra. "I'm surprised you actually seem to genuinely care, though. Enough to worry. It's...refreshing." He glanced back over the rooftops once more. "I just hope being a Negaverse agent doesn't beat that out of you."
At the lieutenant's question, Sinope turned back to him. "...To be honest, I don't think you're cut out for this kind of work," he said seriously, all traces of any amusement, real or fake, gone from his voice and countenance. "You're too kind. You're going to be taken advantage of and broken until nothing of that kindness is left. And seeing as it seems to make up most of you..."
His voice trailed off as he stared hard at Tetra. Then he shook his head and sighed before snorting. "Plus that plushie makes you look ridiculous."
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