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 Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 4:26 pm
---------  --------- He still had the card she'd given him that night, the name on it unhidden and connected to a life hopefully unburdened yet by enemy intelligence- however she defined her enemies. As the sole member of some ...court...that was from another dimension, it was probable that allegiance may follow some blue-orange morality instead of the traditional black and white. But she plainly knew a great deal, he could remember the terms that had been foreign at their private meeting and then the oddnesses of her participation in Wolframite's strike. There was so much I need to know. And much to share that she might help with. She is willing to see action done. Even if not all knights trust her, maybe a founded view, do we not all have personal agendas? In the end, some things like war effort and interpersonal effort can be separate. Thraen called the number, leaving a message on the machine. There was no telling when she would get it, but he had patience. He could wait for response of call of her showing to an appointed meeting place.
Voicemail:
Zia, this is Thraen. If you have time, I'd like to catch up with you about the broken doll and mirror balls. And about a project I'm trying to organize. I'll spend the next couple nights on top of the First and Broad Citizen's Bank. I hope to see you.
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 1:36 pm
Zia had no idea why messages on the machine drew her paranoia. She freely exposed her civilian side, trusting order factions were not the sort to launch assassination plots or retaliation strikes if she drew their ire. At the most she ran the risk of becoming enemy to the individual and now the faction itself due to it’s scattered properties.
She had a roommate, but since he was a knight in his current life and a negaverse officer in the former, his occasional exposure was negligible. Kairatos could no only take care of himself but was an easily accessed ally to have around in civilian life.
Still, she felt her pulse quicken for the briefest moment when she heard the powered name through the speakers. Just a brief shock, before logic settled in and she was gripped by the curious need to know what this project was. And catching up with Thraen sounded positively delightful. He was a senshi she didn’t need to make great efforts to appreciate, he reminded her too much of past charges in their brief interactions previously.
It didn’t take multiple nights to draw her presence. She arrived quickly, large lilac paws padding across the designated rooftop with purpose and enthusiasm.
“Lovely night for conversation!” She said to announce her presence. She didn’t even shift to her humanoid powered form. It was not polite to leak energy at a meeting you didn’t set up yourself, she figured. It had to go against some code of etiquette. “You sound like you have something interesting to talk about.”
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 2:18 pm
He'd brought his sketchbook to pass the time, unable to condone hours of leisure without something productive to show for them- waiting or no. He'd not expected so prompt a presence or answer to his request. He at least had the feel of her approach to warn him not to startle when he heard her words. He looked up from graphite and paper, setting them aside on the lip of the building, and offered her a grateful, held nod of his head for a moment. "I hope they are interesting topics, if nothing else. You have more information, even if it is skewed to your home dimension, than many here. " "I'm glad to see you well. It's been a bit since the attempt on Leto failed. There were aspects to that meeting, to that battle, I wanted to ask you about. They seemed important. And, of course, my own project. " He pulled the satchel at his feet closer, removing two water bottles and a dish to pour into for her- he didn't know how far she would have to travel, and offering refreshment seemed polite. Talking was often thirty work, so if they didn't need it then, they might both want for it later. " That woman, ...the blonde riddled with cracks. You called her a broken doll...'dabbling'. Wolframite called her 'Alkaid'....she mentioned fighting long before. She was a senshi? Do you have some idea of what happened to her? What she'd become? Is that what you meant when we first talked when you mentioned the term 'Chaos Seed'?" "She bore the same holes in chest and forehead as Corrupted that I've seen, but none of them have ever felt like that- roiling black and reaching miasma. None of them were broken like they were no longer flesh. " Carneli sorry about the wait O__o ''' Back up to tagging speed again finally
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Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2014 2:14 pm
“Constants and variables,” Was the abrupt and ever so slightly smarmy response to his statement her information would be skewed. It didn’t make it any less the truth, however.
“That woma-- oh,” It took her a bit to remember Alkaid had been a speaking point. Her thoughts had been elsewhere and honestly self absorbed in the weeks following the White Phoenix operation. “No, not really. I’m not even really sure what she is or what her purpose is,” She said as she sat on her haunches and made herself comfortable.
“Chaos seeds are infection sources, or that’s how I understood them. Metallia, Ares. Sources of corruption granted great power by Chaos to help spread it around. Alkaid is just,” She made a weird little rolling of her shoulders, “When you play with disease, you usually get sick. Chaos eats away at you from the inside out. When you’re granted that intoxicating power, you have to pay for it, one way or the other. Nothing in this universe or the others is ever free! But no, I don’t know specifically what she is, only that she seems to be a logical progression of a live devoted to Chaos. What did you bring?” She asked, greedy eyes focused on the satchel and her head tilting at the bottles.
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Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:38 am
"Water, bottle or saucer as you prefer for forms. To address thirst. And, " Fishing back into his bag, Thraen produced a fifth of Glenlivet 21 Year Old Archive. It had taken some dealing with his cousin, but Stroud had a good taste and connections for getting good anything from wine to scotch. "Also for thirst. Since I couldn't bring a mirror starseed as you'd declared, I hoped it would be a worthwhile gift on its own accord. " She was so delightfully fluffy in her catlike form. Sources of corruption is not much to go on more than the names themselves. You define 'source' as something that can be an epicenter of the disease and taint others, willing or no, two examples. Ares was a scout herself once, and the 'BMC' that fell. "So in Ares' case, a chaos seed can be new fashioned and new germinated from something, anything that wasn't born of chaos originally..rather than the more mundane servants like Youma and Agents. But the agents themselves can and do spread the process, so what is the difference of one source to another that one is called a Chaos Seed and the others not? Were there such things or 'people' in your home dimension? " "And the mirror starseeds...you prompted a specific bounty of sorts for them? New research?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 4:56 am
She was being courteous, she remembered, and had entered into the meeting ingrained in her own mind that courtesy was maintaining small, feline form.
Civilian identities, although she had already utilized hers in Thraen's presence, had rarely been presented as a viable resource for powered meetings since Orpheus revealed his to her. No one needs to know that, she had told him, and lamented the awkward situation it put her in. Since that event, revealing oneself felt almost rude.
And large auras were definitely rude!
Because of this, soft paws with claws retracted padded against the bottle he was holding all the way up to the neck of its shape with a joyous gasp.
"You are too much," She gushed.
"Nothing is born of Chaos," She answered, almost flippantly as she seemed preoccupied with inspecting the label. "It's not a natural state of being, no one comes into the world corrupted. A contract with Chaos is being gifted unnatural power that doesn't belong to you, and Chaos will rarely give that power to people who won't destroy things with it!"
She paused and actually had to think about the question, before she considered answering or continuing to avoid it. "Chaos comes in many different forms," She finally said. "I supposed a source is a new, original form. The direct contract, with Chaos itself."
Not that it wasn't all theory. "There's no real major source of Chaos in my home dimension. The Moon's monarchy and the Earth's alike are whole, fully thriving kingdoms. There's no real war, although there was something of a cold war a generation back, before Ares' time, and there were some minor skirmishes with isolated incidents. My knowledge is second hand, I guess, because," Third hand, she internally lamented as she seemed to file through the foreign memories, "In other lifetimes, I was a corrupted creature, but not a Chaos seed or source or original corruption point. I corrupted for my queen, but my time under Chaos is not something I honestly remember well."
When he brought up mirror seeds, a form change became necessary so she finally shifted up to her humanoid powered form with a "Pardon me" and grabbed one of her collection from subspace to hold it up to him, to show the lack of glow and vibrancy and the opaque surface that resembled several tiny mirrors carefully pieced together in something resembling a starseed shape.
"I am. I've never seen a starseed that didn't glow with life, it's baffling how they are even functioning..."
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 8:58 am
"I do lapidary work, gemcutting is involved with that- the 4cs of stone value one of which is the Cut. Different cuts result in different refraction levels, better or more captured and reflected light. Dartboarding an idea or explanation, mixed with some Lewis Carrol, could it be all the facets and infinite captured light of a starseed turned inside out? 'Mirrored' as it were?" "Is there any help to be offered other than getting you more samples? " Tearing starseeds out of enemies wasn't his idea of a good time, not that it was included in the Order-Senshi brochure of powers. But the chance that something might be done to help the mirror corrupted starseeds, both in sending the parasite soul back to its proper place and/or putting the soul of that realm to rest or return to the system of rebirth, made prospects of trying something worthwhile. It might just be something that Negaverse Agents could provide, as their own chaotic tendencies allowed. It was plain there was a faction that could be bought for some price. The same faction that had fought alongside as the White Phoenix offensive. How many of them persisted after the show of the General King was up for debate. "I've had the displeasure of having regular starseeds in my keeping, confiscated off of a Negaverse Captain. That seems so long ago."
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 8:26 pm
No, there's plenty to do. Mostly..." Zirconia trailed off as she stared into the angles and edges of the starseed in her fingers, briefly captivated in the reflected colors mingling off of its surface in twisted semblances of the world around it.
Her yellow eyes and cat ears both tensing in a new level of focus before she realized she was in the company of someone else.
"...Ahem. Mostly I'm wondering how much they know about this. While I'm sure the court doesn't go about taking out their own starseeds, the internals of ones own anatomy is usually something you're more familiar with. The few I've questioned claim they have no idea, one accused me of playing a prank. But I'm not the most intimidating creature, my torture days are behind me, and I think it's suspicious... the court wouldn't know the construct of their own being."
She cleared her throat. "Either they're lying-- easiest answer, a smart court would protect their own secrets-- or the cult structure is adhered to more strongly than I thought which would be another interesting thing to explore."
She turned it over in her fingers. "In addition to no inner glow of life, it does something else," She added and then moved closer, carefully suspending it with two fingers before forcing her magic onto it. Specifically, acting as she would try to push her hand through a mirror.
The surface rippled and shuddered, its shape quaking in sudden instability. After a second of that, it started to emit a strange noise. A quiet, almost pleading hum.
Her eyes flicked to Thraen to make sure he was watching before she bit down on her lower lip with increased effort. The ripples intensified and the hum's volume rose and stopped. It suddenly let out an audible noise that sounded like a scream of anguish before Zirconia had exhausted herself and had to stop.
The noises ceased immediately, and the starseed regained a much more stable, solid shape. Solid, tiny mirrors, as if nothing had ever happened.
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Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 11:39 pm
"It could also be, at least in the younger members, that they've no reason to think or assume their starseeds are any different than anyone else's. It seems rare for Order members to think of it, the look of them. In a scientific way. They can hardly think their own danger and death are real in the war, if they recognize it as war. The Dark Mirror members seem as young as any of the other factions. High School and College students aren't known for their attention to every detail. " "Starseeds are seen as flashes of light between the fingers of some Negaverse agent, pulled out of some stranger, friend, family or another combatant. If it's you're own, you don't really have a chance to see it. I've never seen a Negaverser's starseed, for instance. I don't know what they look like compared to the ones I'd come into. Which I can only guess belonged to civilians. I don't know the difference between a senshi's, a knights, mauvian's, or a civilian's if there are any. I can postulate there must be differences...seeing how this one is different and knowing how different we all feel. " The reaction of the starseed was fascinating. The sound was curious, too voice-like for easy comfort, then the scream was terrible. The scarred side of his mouth twisted in brief distaste. "That... Is a conundrum. " "It sounded like a voice in pain. But who's. The soul of this world, screaming inside? Of the your world fighting the intrusion? What was the magic and effect that you were using- the motion of your hand had practice to some affectation....like how the Negaverse position their hand to reach into whatever hammerspace is in the chest to find the starseed to begin with. Can you reach into starseeds? Regular ones? Or...something else?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 11:54 pm
"Oh..." Was the almost flippant response to his elaboration. Zirconia did not come from a world where one was introduced to magic and the universe, knowledge of such things like your starseed and moon queens, in the early stages of adulthood. Magic was common knowledge. It was at natural as knowing the broad strokes of your own history.
As a result, the human host had stepped onto the game board overly advantageous in this broad scope of retroactive knowledge, and completely ignorant to the amount others might have learned along the way.
"Well, then, let me elaborate." She held up the starseed between only two fingers again. "The basic anatomy of a starseed is this shape, and a clear, probably crystalline substance. What it is exactly could probably never be identified and named. All starseeds glow with their own light. I've never questioned it, or what at its core would generate such light. I've always taken it for life, personally, and whatever it is probably couldn't be answered in any way outside of philosophical musings on the soul. Chaos can infect it, rot it, permeate it. They can feel different and glow differently. Break, crack, be wounded. But I have always been certain everyone's star glows with a light, because they are alive to hold it."
She tilted her head at the one in her hand, "Which makes the lack of light from this something... troubling to me, I guess."
And it was a disturbing sensation that seemed to unsettle her at her on a strange, primal level.
"I was just... Well I can interact with most reflective surfaces. Like for mirrorwalking, and back when I had senshi I did it to communicate with them. I was trying to interact, I guess. Push my fingers through. I can't reach in it, it won't let me through. It just sort of... blobs?"
Her mouth twisted at the word. It wasn't one that quite fit, but was good enough for now. "It's resisting the interaction, but it's almost like it's... reacting back? Which is strange because it has been removed from the body. The owner is most definitely dead by now."
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 12:21 am
"The 'zombie' body this side, certainly. " It had been long enough, and the fire at the warehouse after that battle, to have ended that combatant left on the floor as she declared her invitation to the Negaverse agents that had been present. "Is there a body on the other side, the soul drawn here, that it is still connected to? Or is it the Chaos-seed source protecting its own? I guess everything is conjecture and question. That would be why you wanted more to study. ..you don't have to answer, ...just more dart-boarding. The starseeds I'd had became dull, without light, then just faded away into nothing. I wonder if this one will do the same? Is it as fragile as regular ones, for all that it seems to defend itself...which is more than can be said for the usual variety. " Thraen traced the pad of his thumb along his own chin in thought, watching the ambient city light play across the surface of the thing. 'plenty to do'...but hard to tell what plenty even is. The Mirror Court, or the Mirror universe it stemmed from and is corruption of are both foreign and shrouded to much of my experience. It makes it hard to even know what to offer or what is just imagination. And she the sole survivor of her kind to be able to say aught of its ways, magic and expectations. Unless there could be something found in archaeology to help those of us who are not native to it self-educate. "What 'plenty' could be offered as help to you from one not of the Negaverse? ...The last matter I'd wanted to talk to you about was my organizing a large meeting. Trying to establish a Coalition between teams and independents, knights and senshi. A forum that can actively provide charity effort, can keep a tab of willing bodies to specific missions and provide for them, and can push for more active archaeology and research. It was the last two aspects that I thought may interest you...and that I would be glad for your help in. If such a coalition might interest you. Regular missions to the Moon, to homeworlds, catalog and syllabary research? There's no guarantees any of it would turn up useful to you anymore than us. But there's no guarantee it won't.And it would be a forum from which manpower could be drawn in return for your own research. "
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 8:02 pm
“I don’t have answers anyway…” The Mauvian said in a breathless sigh. She had forgotten the connection the the world Ares claimed to have stolen these souls from. “That is a valid subject to bring up, though… My own body is encased in crystal, safely preserved back home.But the fact is there isn’t an abundance of senshi there, either. One cat, ten senshi, including the queen. But who knows what’s changed since I’ve been gone, or how much time has passed on that side…”
Time passes differently in the mirror, she remembered. Especially after her own timeline had been altered.
Her ears perked at attention when he mentioned starseeds in his possession faded and became dull. She obviously hadn’t known that, but then again, in a world without Negaverse operatives to rip them out of people she had never really thought about what happens when starseeds were left outside their bodies too long.
“Maybe they’re making their way to the cauldron, like they should’ve done when their body died naturally,” She murmured. It was a nice thought to cling to, anyway. “We’ve theorized… after Nehelenia died… that the Cauldron might reject our starseeds. Might realize we don’t belong here or be confused by the merging. It seemed most likely that we’d just… fade to stardust when we die in this universe.”
She turned the starseed over in her hands and sighed a bit. Did it have nowhere to go? Was it real? Would the cauldron take it if it was counterfeit? O was it shielded in a way she didn’t understand?
“Oh. Information, mostly. I hear the court members sometimes get friendly with Order. An obnoxious amount of people try to convince me of the good prince’s merits as an honest and just force in our community. Operations, protocols, names of cooperative assets. The usual, but now I know I’m looking for something besides just basic understanding of their function.”
Her ramble seemed to trail as words of his coalition and its goals sunk in. “That sounds… interesting.”
The fluffy cat tail behind her flicked from side to side as the mental wheels in her head started turning. “I can only accompany as a passenger on trips, but research… I would be interested in mutual sharing.”
She banished the mirrorseed to subspace and shifted down to her civilian form to cross her arms and shift her weight to one hip. “I have a sizable amount of materials collected from homeworlds and wonders I’ve been to so far, if that would interest you. I’d have to touch base with Sailor Aquarius first since some of it is not entirely mine.”
One corner of her mouth twitched up in a half smile. “I have more interests at hand than the infectious, gaping wound my fellow court member has left on this universe, Thraen. If I’m being honest, I enjoy those a lot more.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 5:08 am
"Where and what is 'The Cauldron'? I have only heard it mentioned one other time, I think. " His brow furrowed considering the possibilities of friendlying up to the mirror court in a bid for information. It would be a longshot to manage anything of that sort- friendlying up to the White Moon was already difficult enough when it came to war philosophy. "The full moon on the 12th is the target date for the meeting, ferries opening around the city will be released on our announcement system on the phones and through what knights we can manage. I'll leave a message for you whereabouts, but if you're busy it shouldn't be a problem " "Aquarius...I'm worried about her. She wouldn't accept help...or even company. She was talking to nobody, nervous and afraid. I think she's driving herself to madness, and trying to protect others. Or the self-destructive despair that doesn't want help. I don't know. I don't know her well enough. But if you can find her, and can talk to her..." "Maybe she'll accept a Mauvian more than another senshi. " He didn't know how well of friends the Guardian was with a Zodiac, or what the relations may be between parallel court and the Surrounding. It was all ....beyond his scope of memory. Too young a senshi in service, and galled by it, to be able to help in spite of offers and hopes. Ah-The chide was gentle, and he dipped his head, eyes lowered in apology, "I didn't intend to imply your interest and scope so limited. Only my understanding of your aims. Access to what you've gathered would be an incredible boon, yours and Aquarius'. In truth, talking with her was one of the inspirations that fed the idea for the Watch. One person on a dusty planet can only get so much done, compared to a concerted team. And they could watch over each other- it was a matter of how to organize the efforts, fund them, and then archive the research, interpret it for uses, disperse it. From there it was a matter of how the infrastructure could be expanded to serve everyone in non-combatant focused ways, supporting each other and regular contact....another...'inspiration' from her. I'm worried for her, Zirconia. I've hardly gotten to know her, but she was so bright a mind to meet. "
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 8:20 pm
"Afterlife is always how I've understood it," The she answered honestly. "It's where we go when we die, it's where we come from when we're born, I've never questioned it until my human host came with all these pre-downloaded memories of other afterlives and beliefs."
For some reason she wasn't expecting talk about the meeting to jump to 'so come to the moon'. She had never been invited to the moon and she had never conceived going. She certainly didn't have access to the magic they used to get there but for the most part it gripped her on an emotional level she didn't quite have the courage to unpack yet. Her mouth only twisted in an unusual way before tensing. "I can't make it."
The topic shifted to Aquarius and she seemed to become even more withdrawn and quiet, shifting her weight to the other side again and holding her arms close to her body. "I've seen her," She murmured, but didn't want to elaborate any further. Tara had thought she could help, and she had felt utterly incompetent when she not only failed to provide the assistance Tara thought she could, but when she slipped out of her grasp before Zia could do anything further. There were no easy answers to Tara's problem, and Zia felt all the more crushed that she had apparently been under the impression Zia had some hidden away and she badly wished that was true. It wasn't, and she hadn't heard from Tara since she ran away from her.
One of her fingers twirled around a loose ringlet while her eyes wandered elsewhere for much of Thraen's articulation. There was a lingering pause with no words or eye contact between them before she managed a soft and minor semblance of a smile. Weak, but an attempt at the gesture as she reached out and lightly touched his arm.
'It'll be okay.' Seemed like the matching words that went along with it. She felt like she should probably say them.
Instead her arm dropped to her side and he was treated to a strained and quietly hoarse, "I should go."
She turned on her heel, sneaker sole squeaking in protest and raised one arm as she departed. "Another time, yah?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 3:26 am
That was a quick and decisive reply- it drew his attention more keenly to her and the strange tone of the words. The set of her mouth and angles of her jaw muscles. The distance between them felt like a widening rift- some social faux pas unknown crossed in subject matter. What that could be or why, in the general sharing of information and questions, when he'd made that purpose clear from the start, was curious. Curious, vexing, and boggling all- Zirconia seemed to have a wealth and desire for more information, a scholar's airs. He couldn't read where the personal had intervened and broken social wa (和). Searching her face as she touched his arm revealed nothing more than any other person would have expected- it wasn't like magic marker would appear writ on someone's forehead and cheeks explaining what they wouldn't with their own words. Then the strained retreat. I've botched something badly. 'Seen her' is...something. I can't tell what to take from that regarding Aquarius. Has she gotten worse? Better? Is that a warning to not seek her or to try? I can't draw anything out of that. Just that some other person in this universe is aware that a girl I barely know is going crazy, that she needs help and wouldn't accept any. "The scotch- don't forget it. Another time. " Thraen stood, reminding of the gift brought and nodded to her, asking no more. Carneli Fin~ Thanks for this rp! Its a huge help
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