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 Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 7:53 pm
Acubens had spent the last hour carefully laying her trail down in the ever-shifting twilight space that was the realm inside the mirror. Little digital recorders rested on floors and tables to serve two purposes. The first was to discover what -- if anything -- was moving about in the darkness when no one was there to witness it. The second was to judge if this pocket dimension functioned on the same laws of time that reality did. When she came back at the same time the next day, the batteries should be dead. If they were not... then she'd puzzle that one out when she got to it, she guessed. It was an interesting little side project when she was no gathering information about whatever she could get her hands on.
All knowledge was good knowledge.
She smiled and clicked on the last of the recorders, saying a silent prayer that it would be where she left it. If nothing else, she could report her findings to the senshi that she'd heard was very interested in Mirrorspace... what was her name again? M... M something. It was another cruel reminder that she was failing Remarque. She didn't know nearly enough about her court. Like when Scylla began talking about the birth of her queen... of her princess and the first brood. She knew nothing about that night... she still knew so little. she would have to make a point to seek out Leto. She had been there, right?
Speaking of royals, the powered signature of someone far beyond her rank nearly knocked Acubens on her a**. The feeling was breath-taking when you were ready for it but... damn near debilitating when you weren't. She had to take a moment to steady herself on an upended table to keep herself from falling over.
"Your grace," she gasped, bowing deeply from the waist. "I hadn't been expecting you."
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Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:26 pm
Remarque immediately raised a brow at the words—and the bow. “Your Grace?” he challenged. Almost sounded exasperated, he added, “Acubens, what are you talking about? You know my name.”
He seemed indifferent to the title; it wasn’t annoying in a way that was bothersome, but he hadn’t really been much for such fanciness.
He was in his Prince form not for the attention, but for the need; he never knew what he was going to find in Mirrorspace and he wasn’t the sort to be unprepared if he could help it. In Destiny City, he preferred to move around with freedom. A Prince’s radar would have only made him a beacon; here, he supposed the only kind were his own.
It seemed that he was moving between mirrors, exploring one to the next. He walked through the room, a bit closer to her, though paused to eye one of recorders. “…What are you doing?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:48 pm
It was a pity that Remarque was filling the void that Misha had left behind, but it never really stopped her. Acubens grinned brightly, eyes twinkling with mischief. Granted, he didn't play along like... well he didn't play along. Still, it filled the need that Acubens had to tease someone and it numbed the dull ache in her chest for just a moment. And maybe Remarque knew this... maybe he didn't but... ah well. "I do know your name. And it is Prince Remarque, Royal Dark Mirror Senshi of Puppetry, Guardian of The Mirror, Heir to the Throne of the Black Kingdom." However much of that was true. But it amused her and it sounded good. And though he was busy and though she knew that, she still turned to throw her arms around him, hugging him so close that she nearly knocked off that ridiculous top hat of his. He could take time out of his busy day to greet her properly. "I am doing a little science experiment," she chirped, releasing him after a moment. "I had a conversation with another White Moon Senshi and I realized that I know pitifully little about my family and where we came from. If I am going to help you unite this court... and I am going to help you, then I need more information. And I figured I'd start here. So I'm figuring out what happens to Mirrorspace when no one is here. I'm calling it 'Schrodinger's Mirror.'" And then it struck her... Leto hadn't been around for a while to ask but... surely Remarque would know. "What do you know about the night Ares became Queen?" It was a sudden question, and it surprised even Acubens, who had not even officially planned to speak in the first place.
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Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 11:53 pm
Remarque’s brow seemed perpetually arched in Acuben’s direction. He allowed the hug, but only because he assumed it would be more work to throw her off of him than it would be to tolerate her doing it. At the mention of her experiment, he glanced around the room once more and cleared his throat.
“You’ll have to enlighten me on just what this experiment entails. I’m not sure how much research you can collect from a room you might never see again. Why are you asking about Ares?”
He wasn’t against the topic switch, but he was still curious to know what information she was seeking from Mirrorspace like this. While Remarque had not necessarily openly criticized Ares, he had long-since dropped all formal titles for the woman. She was Ares, and she was no Queen of his.
“Her warmongering earned her the ire of her Court and she drifted into Chaos.”
He did not know how she was made anymore than he knew what Mirrorspace was—or what they were. “She named herself Queen and sought a new Court to fulfill her needs. Very ‘join me or die’, I think. I suppose she made a lot of enemies that night, within her Court. She must have been quick to turn on them, I don’t know if anyone could have seen it coming. I wonder if she considered them her family before us.” He clucked his tongue in thought and shrugged a few seconds later. “Who knows.” A pause. “Leto might, actually. But she’s always been a little blind to Ares’ faults so I don’t know how that fondness might have tampered with her memories of the evening.”
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Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 6:26 am
Acubens shrugged at Remarque's thoughts on her experiment. If it yielded results, then she'd work with them. If it didn't then she'd figure something else out. The essence was that she wanted to understand what she was and the forces that shaped her existence as a dark mirror senshi. And to be honest, not getting any results, for Acubens was a kind of understanding. Mirrorspace was ever-shifting, ever-changing, never-the-same-space-twice. She loved that about the place. But if there was some kind fo pattern, some kind of way to understand it the way she understood the outside world, then she would take it. "It's figuring out how time works in mirrorspace and if there is anything else here. If I leave these on and come back in a day, they should be dead. If they are not, then time works differently here. I also want to know if they pick up any sounds while we are away... "I talked to a white moon senshi a while ago... Scylla. She was there the night Ares was born but... she didn't give me much information. Just that the... Blood Moon Court... I think they were called... they were violent. Too violent, and that opened Ares up to the choas. She betrayed her friends... can we trust a queen who betrayed her family? There's so much I don't know about this court..." Her voice trailed off as she ran a hand up and down a near wall. "If she made this court in betrayal of her family... what are we here for? What's our purpose?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 9:40 pm
For a moment, Remarque seemed like he was scrutinizing the question. He tilted his head just slightly and raised a brow. He watched Acubens with an inquisitive eye and after a few seconds he seemed to decide that she wasn’t teasing.
“I only mean,” he gestured to her project, “How are you going to find them again? Mirrorspace is always changing. I am only concerned that you’re putting effort into this and risk losing your research to the folds of Mirrorspace.”
He was buying time, perhaps, to approach her other questions.
“Why are you so interested in Ares?” he asked finally. “Have you ever even met her? She’s no more than a myth.” A myth was giving her too much credit, though; she was little more than a shadow. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she’s not exactly around. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve got no reason to trust her. She’s just a Senshi who got in over her head and fled. ‘Queen’ is the title she gave herself, Acubens. ‘Queen’ to a Court she abandoned years ago.”
He didn’t seem particularly hurt by this; he shrugged. “She’s not my Queen, nor should she be yours. So far as I’m concerned, her purpose is not ours. She wanted to rebuild her Parallel Kingdom. She wasn’t like us—she was a spirit, from another universe, trapped in this one. And when she couldn’t get home, she tried to build a new one. She cared nothing for us—for Earth. It was never her home. Forget about her goals, they were selfish and served none but herself. The Court has goals—they’re what we make them.”
He planted his hands on his hips and watched her closely as he spoke. “Our purpose is to try and keep it safe. We’re a third party in this war—the Senshi, the Knights, are constantly fighting the Negaverse. They forget about us. We have the unique opportunity to be what we want to be and operate where we want to. Some prefer to work with Order, some prefer to work with the Negaverse. Regardless of whose skillsets you are utilizing, the goal of the Dark Mirror Court is simple: protect what’s important to you. In my case, it’s Earth. It’s my family.” He gestured to Mirrorspace around them. “It’s to understand this place and to learn what we can. I’m not convinced there isn’t something greater hiding here. One day, I suspect the Earth is going to be destroyed. I don’t know if there’s anything we can do about it. If the Negaverse doesn’t do it, something else will. But I know that we have an opportunity that Neither Negaverse nor Senshi has—we have Mirrorspace. And if we can understand its secrets, I have faith that we’ll be able to do something to keep the people close to us safe. Even if Earth is destroyed…” His voiced trailed off and he seemed pensive but finally he just shrugged again. “Maybe we’ll have a backup.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 11:19 am
As Remarque spoke, Acubens' lips open in a a wordless "oh." She wasn't sure what she was expecting... and she didn't even really know what she wanted to hear. It wasn't that she was let down it was just... every time she learned something, she wanted to know more. She had left, but why? Why create something and then leave it? If her goal was to make a home, then where did she go? Had she just lost interest or... frustration overtook her surprise, and she turned to the composition notebook resting on a table nearby. "It's not that I'm interested in Ares, persay," she explained, jotting down what Remarque had said, "But I am interested in us. And like it or not, Ares is part of our story." Messy little bullets lined the page that she numbered and added to the index at the front of the book. "And I want to know all of our story. From beginning to end. That's going to be our advantage. When I was in the White Moon, no one knew anything about Queen Serenity. We had a meeting once, and her daughter spoke. I don't remember what she said... but no one knew who she was, what she wanted, or where she had gone. Because of this, the White Moon is inherently chaotic. Each faction of senshi has their own goals, their own agendas and methods. The war between each other in some cases." She shut the book and tossed it back on the tabe, careful to keep an eye on it so that mirror space didn't swallow it. "And the negaverse is so steeped in Metallia's lies that they don't know up from down. Truth, Remaruqe, is going to be our best weapon and our best defense. Objective, provabe truth. No moralistic bullshit, no ideology, just facts. And I need to gather those facts. So it's not Ares, like I said. It's us, and every black, bruised, oily part of our past."
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Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2017 7:35 pm
Remarque planted his hands on his hips and raised another brow at Acubens. “I never said Ares wasn’t part of the story,” he pointed out. “But I’m not sure how you think that’s going to be our advantage.”
He leaned against the table, instead choosing to cross his arms over his chest. “Do you think Ares’ actions define you? Because the truth is, she was ready to murder for what she wanted. The truth is, all she did was prove that no one knew where her priorities were. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with you looking for answers, but this information isn’t really some big secret—and I’d really rather not be defined based on someone else’s actions. What Ares did as a Senshi isn’t what this Court is. She gave it up, so far as I’m concerned. I haven’t seen her fighting to protect this world, or us. I don’t know where she is or what she’s doing, but,” he shrugged. “Truth is more than just a history lesson. Don’t become so steeped in the past that you forget what awaits us in our future. Whatever Ares did, however she did it, it doesn’t define us. Our goals are not the same as hers. I don’t want anyone to be misled. I don’t think of Ares as a particularly great ruler. She was never there when I needed her, and I saw so little of her that we might as well have been strangers. But she is dear to Leto, so if you want to know more about her, ask her.”
He watched Acubens while he spoke, as if trying to read her. “But I will not let her define the Court when she has had so little to do with it for so long. I would hope our best weapon, and our best defense, is our conviction to our cause. But I suppose it doesn’t hurt to know what you can of where our power comes from. I just don’t know that you’ll find any information that will help us by looking at Ares. She made enough enemies for us, we’d be safer to keep a bit of a distance from her.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2017 7:49 pm
"I'm not losing sight of the future," Acubens said softly, pulling the cloth from the table near her. She marveled, for just a moment, over the weight she felt in her hands. It really idd feel like a real tablecloth. It had bulk, it folded. It weighed something in her hands and felt like real fabric. Mirrorspace, she wondered for the millionth time, was amazing... she flipped the cloth back into the table and smoothed it down, righting a vase as well knowing full well that it might never be seen again. Really, she was keeping her hands busy. "What if someone comes a long after me and wants to know these things? I was without answers once, and it cost us an ally. I won't be without answers again. I know that she doesn't define us. I can see that in what we are doing -- and in what we are not doing. You broke the chains of the negaverse long before I even got here. I know who cast those chains. The court is now free to conspire with the negaverse as they see fit... that was not the case with Ares. I know. I know that we are not what she makes us. Remember that I was there when she called the raid on the Order that night..." It was, maybe, the last night that she recalled having any faith in the white moon. The way they scrambled and gathered in teams and left her alone. Painfully, frighteningly alone. And all after abusing her for asking simple questions... Acubens swallowed her regret before speaking again. "I remember what she wanted. And I can see the differences. I am not defining the court by her. I am only looking for answers. For me, the search starts at square one. She is square one. when I've learned all I can from that, I'll move forward to your captaincy with Leto, what that was like. How you worked, what your goals were, how you achieved them... and how you became royalty. Truth is more than just history, I know. But history feeds into truth. What is that old adage about being bound to repeat it if we cannot learn from it? "Ares was a disaster. I know that. But others may not. So those that come after us need to know about her, about what she did and how she left." She was trying to make sense. Trying to make it sound less about her and more about what she really wanted. This was to strengthen the court, honestly it was. "Everyone I have asked so far has known nothing except for Scylla who almost slapped me, Leto who is MIA, and you. Younger senshi can't count on the White Moon for s**t, I learned that the hard way. And you can't bear the responsibility yourself, Remarque. You already do so much for us. If I can gather this information, keep it somewhere... I don't know, the throne room? Is there a library here? Maybe I can take some of the pressure off of you."
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Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 9:30 pm
“They don’t,” Remarque said after a thoughtful moment. “They don’t need to know about her, and how she left. There’s too much about her that we don’t know. There are questions we might never have answers for. I’m not saying to give up,” he certainly hadn’t, “But don’t paint a picture of Ares for anyone that’s coming after you. All they need to know is that she made the Court, and she’s gone. Speculating is only going to cause misconceptions. I don’t want them to think that they were abandoned, or that this Court was created by a woman who we barely know. We’ve had too many people defect, and I don’t want her part to be any more reason. I’m not saying wipe her out of the history books, but don’t focus on her, just say Ares created the Court, and she disappeared. Truth be told? That’s all we know about it, anyway. Writing down anymore might as well just be gossip.”
He sighed and watched her; he hadn’t forgotten the questions she’d asked and didn’t intend to avoid them, but he’d needed to get that off his chest before he could continue.
He waved his hand dismissively after a few seconds. “Don’t worry about taking the pressure off of me. It’s never been so much that I felt burdened.” Or, he had a problem passing the reigns of responsibility to anyone else. He knew that if he did something, it was being done right. “I’ve been doing fine on my own for this long, do I look like I’m showing signs of wearing down?”
He flashed a cocky grin for measure, and while a shadow of it remained on his face he added with more seriousness, “There’s no library here, and keeping information in the Throne Room won’t do much anyway. First stage Senshi can’t access Mirrorspace without someone stronger than them. Truthfully, my hope is that whoever is awakening these Senshi is giving them the information they need to thrive, or at least showing them to someone who can. I’ve got no issue sharing the knowledge I’ve collected—and you collecting information is fine and all, but…you need to be careful with that. I don’t know that there’s anywhere safe in Mirrorspace for it right now, and out there, in Destiny City? Anyone could steal it. We don’t have that many secrets, but I’d hate for someone to find a way to weaponize what information we do have and use it against us.”
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Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 6:49 am
Acubens scoffed at the idea of giving up. "When was the last time I quit anything, Remarque? I'm not giving up. But I'm also not going to hide facts. The fact is that Ares did abandon us. And I want newbies to know that from people that they can trust, not from strangers who will use that information to hurt them. It was almost used to hurt me." Acubens went quiet for a second while she thought, trying to organize her thoughts. "If we own the facts, Remarque, we can make them work for us. Ares left, but this is actually a boon. We have no queen, no one telling us what to think or how to act. We set our own goals and our own methods. You act like people knowing about Ares will lead to disaster. I believe that it will lead to our freedom. We have no Serena or Metallia with stock in the war. We have only ourselves and each other. We do what is best for us." How was that not the most liberating sentiment of all time? And besides that... Scylla was right. Acubens couldn't whitewash history. Ares was a part of their story. New recruits deserved to know. "But for keping the information, I can't just keep it all up here, so I'm using this." Acubens tossed Remarque a ratty old composition notebook as she spoke. "Everything is written in a cypher. Nordic runes fused with Tolkien Tengwar script. It was a code my brother and I used to use in high school. He's the only person besides me who knows the key and... well... since I died he hasn't really been out much so... I guess I'm the only one who knows it." It'd do until she could find a more permanent place for the info. "Speaking of the throne room... that crystal... what does it do? Also can I touch it?" Because everytime Acubens walked by that crystal, it snapped and crackled with electricity, and Acubens so very wanted to touch it...
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Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 1:07 pm
Remarque initially shrugged as his mind mulled over what she’d said about Ares. They were looking at it from different perspectives; he simply thought of Ares as less than what she might have been to others. To Leto, to some of the Senshi that had defected for her, she was an idol. A role model. A Queen.
To him, she was only Ares. Ares, who brought him into the Court and shared this power, but that was all.
He was not ungrateful that she had introduced him to the Court, but he’d told himself that it could have been anyone. She might have given the chance, but he’d made it his own. He’d made himself.
“I don’t act like people knowing about Ares will lead to disaster,” he scoffed. “You’re not saying anything new to me. I’m not exactly a good ‘follower’, so her not being around is no skin off my back. I like the freedom. I like the power to make my own decision and do what’s best for me—for the Court. I’m only saying, of Ares, that there will come a point when people will ask you questions you don’t have the answers to. There are answers Ares left with, and sides to stories she never told. I don’t want Ares to wind up on some pedestal—some legend of the Dark Mirror Court. Share her story, or her role in ours, that’s fine. But it’s hard to tell any story without pissing someone off. So I’m saying, be careful, or you might wind up causing some sort of divide in our Court.”
He shrugged; he wasn’t making an effort to conceal information and he wasn’t the least bit upset that Ares was gone. His life had improved in the Court; he answered to no one, he wasn’t pursuing someone else’s goals—he got to focus on what was important to him.
“It’s funny that you would mention that crystal, though. Don’t touch it.”
Anticipating more questions about it, he launched into an explanation before she could ask.
“Once, Ares’ Brimstone Crystal used to be there. It was an anchor to Mirrorspace, so far as I can tell. When she left, she took her crystal with her. Mirrorsapce was unstable, we didn’t have anything to root ourselves to it. The wraiths started acting up—do you remember that? They wouldn’t listen to anyone. Turned on some of the Dark Mirror Sesnhi, too. Leto and I went into Mirrorspace to look for answers.”
He had been holding her composition notebook, but it was only now that he started thumbing through it. He couldn’t read it, but it didn’t stop him from looking.
“When we were at the end of the line, we found a wraith—a giant wraith, bigger than anything I’ve ever seen. It attacked us, we attacked it. Won, but barely.” Mirrorspace must have been looking upon them favorably that day—or, if not Mirrorspace, whatever power had granted them the abilities of a Royal Senshi. “When we defeated it, it left behind that crystal. So far as we can tell, when Ares’ crystal was removed from the alter, we lost what control we had. The energy we gathered had nowhere to go, so it went into that crystal. Or, that wraith. I don’t know, honestly. I assumed all the energy we were gathering was going directly into it—that’s how it got so large, and so strong. But it was uncontrollable. We plugged the crystal it left behind into the alter and everything’s been going smoothly ever since. That crystal’s what we use to store the energy we collect and it seems to keep the wraiths in check. I’d guess it helps keep Mirrorspace stable for us, too. But don’t touch it, really. I can’t stress that enough.”
He closed her notebook and handed it back. “Leto and I were Royal Senshi when we handled it. I don’t know if it’s a stable crystal. It serves its purpose, but it’s dangerous. If anything happened to it, I don’t know what would happen to Mirrorspace, or the wraiths, or us. Or you. So it’s best to just leave it be, all right?”
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Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 2:38 pm
Acubens' gaze drifted back over in the direction of the throne room as Remarque spoke. So it was a mystery then... what would happen if she touched it. That kinda... made her want to touch it... more. Was it like when wraith passed through her? All cold showers and uncomfortable mist? Or would it be like when she sensed the nergaverse, like someone hooked a livewire up to her nerves and wouldn't let her go. She forced herself to forget the thought after a moment. Remarque didn't even know what the crystal did... it would be a shame to break the Dark Mirror Court because Acubens wanted to touch something... She shook her head as though shaking off the temptation and returned her attention to Remarque as he returned her notes. He hadn't said anything about the overt lack of security, so he must not have been worried about it. Trouble was that Acubens didn't trust her own memory... things got jumbled up and confused sometimes... she needed a record. "So, the energy that we collect goes into the crystal? Where does it go from there?" Why hadn't she thought to ask this question before? Gods she knew so little about her court... she flipped open her little notebook and began feverishly recording what she had already learned.
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Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 12:17 am
Remarque gave her a few seconds to write before he started to answer: “From there, we use that energy to awaken new Senshi, to help White Moon Senshi join, to get more mirrorshards, and to make the compacts. The energy we collect goes right back into making the Court better. We need it or we can’t upgrade—can’t get new members. We haven’t been low on energy in a while, but I suspect that if we have an excess of it, it goes into keeping Mirrorspace stabilized. I don’t know,” he shrugged. “It’s hard to tell. It’s a theory I’m working on but we’ve never collected enough energy that we’ve been able to experiment with things. It’s usually just enough to keep us moving along.”
Just barely, but he wasn’t going to say that.
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Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2017 8:07 pm
So it worked like a mana pool? Everything went into a big pot and they drew from it as they needed? Honestly, Acubens wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but was she scribbling furiously in her notebook before the information had a chance to get twisted and confused in her mind, more questions raced. If they could get enough to have excess, what experiments did Remarque have in mind? How did they know how much they had? Was there a meter somewhere or something? The questions tumbled over one another to get out first but Acubens worked to keep them to herself. Remarque had been on his way somewhere when Acubens had diverted his attention. She would wait until later to ask them all. Maybe when she wasn't so plagued with curiosity that all of her questions threatened to erupt out of her at once. "Speaking of moving," she sighed, closing her notebook and laying it on the table beside her, "I think you were on your way somewhere. Sorry to keep you, but thanks for stopping to chat with me!"
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