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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 4:15 pm
Moonstone's face went from irritated and satisfied to a blank mask with hard eyes, her stare was like daggers but there was no hate in it just a flat glance over the 'playing field' as described by Ares.
She braced her foot and snapped off the second horn with another shivering meaty crack before she bothered to answer.
"What makes you think, that I have anything left to lose there..." She answered, her voice sounding somehow like she had already died and all that was left was what you saw.
She undid her headband and tore it in two to wrap around the bases of the horns
"I" she informed them "Am going to follow the trail here... if it happens to correspond with you then so be it."
The anger was back, rolling in like a spill of hot ash rolling down the face of a volcano and smothering the deadness in her voice again.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 5:45 pm
She continued to stare at the girl in front of her in confusion. "Wait...protected me from what?" To her knowledge, Calintha had not needed to be protected in a long time. She couldn't wrap her brain around anything that was happening. "Ares?" She blinked a few times. Ares seemed a little mythological for her, but she also knew that people were naming their kids the weirdest stuff these days.
She nodded a bit numbly and shrugged when when Ares basically demanded for Calintha to stay with her. Honestly, she didn't particularly have any better plans, and even if this girl was her imagination (though, the girl doubted it) being with someone was better than no one. She couldn't quite get the smell of roses out of her nose though, and it was bothering her. Calintha bent her head down a bit to rub her nose, when she noticed it.
A bright, white rose, whose stem had been shoved into the eyelet on her sweatshirt. "Augh." She ripped the rose off and cast it to the side, hoping it would take care of the smell. she caught part of the conversation between the two oddly dressed characters. Turning to the woman next to her, she whispered "Whats a negaverse agent?" Then again, everything that was going on was getting stranger.
The poor botanist knew nothing of the underground world of Destiny City, and the words 'negaverse agent', 'senshi' and 'queens' meant nothing to her. All she knew was that it was not a safe city, and she could feel that in her soul sometimes; negative energy lurking around corners and alleyways.
"It...might be good to have another with us I guess?" The more the merrier in her book.
Unless they both turned out to be evil monsters, like the ones that haunted her dreams. In which case, Calintha would be running as fast as she could in the other direction.
The blonde really hoped this wasn't the truth. She didn't know how many more nightmares she could handle before breaking.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 6:01 pm
Sailor Ares watched Moonstone snap the other antler off. It would be very smart to get a weapon in the real world. Unfortunately, that was not where they were. The senshi of smoke failed to pay attention to her own weapon -- the switches. She did not make the connection between the shared futility of their actions.
It was not in her nature to work with a Negaverse agent, but Ares had a questionable morality. She did what her Queen said. It didn't matter if that was attacking Queen Beryl or attacking Queen Serenity. Her only allegiance was to Nehelenia. She had known that her entire life. If forging a temporary cease fire with a Nega would help get them out of this place, then perhaps it was necessary.
Calintha slid up beside her and whispered in her ear. "The Negaverse is a faction composed of agents of dark energy who tear starseeds from the chests of people like you. I am a senshi from the Black Moon, and I will protect you. In Destiny City, I keep youma -- created by people like her -- from taking starseeds too. That is how I protect you." Did that answer her question? Hopefully. "You don't need to fear losing your starseed here. You should worry more about your mind." She watched as Moonstone began to scale the tree. It wasn't a bad idea.
When she got back down, Ares planned on following the trail of blood. The nightmare world was going to lead them in a direction, she knew that. It might be a trap, but she didn't see other options. "Cali, you need to know something about this place." She might have been directing it to Cali, but her voice was loud enough for Moonstone to hear.
"This place is, I think, Tartaros. It is a nightmare world whose gatekeeper is Cassandra. If we are here, then we are not in reality. We are in... another plain of existence. The normal rules do not apply." It was a lot to tell a civilian, but if Cali was here, then there was something serious afoot and she needed to know. "You can't always trust your eyes. You can't always trust your ears." As if on cue, Ares heard the sound of Princess Selene crying. She tried to ignore it, but it was hardly successful. That sound was the stuff of nightmares.
Ares frowned, but moved back toward the carcass. "We are going to follow the blood trail." Her eyes raised to the girl climbing the tree. "Tell me what you see."
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 6:12 pm
Moonstone looked down from her climbing, the branches wobbled under her as she climbed and creaked dangerously as she made her way higher, she half wondered if she would fall.
So far all she could see were trees trees trees... black arms that reached up to claw at the sky like they wanted revenge on the clouds.
"Wow... you Senshi are just TOO smart for us" She called down. "Man I spent my WHOLE LIFE wanting to rip s**t out of peoples chest, I mean, god... it was my life ambition you know? I can't even BEGIN to tell you how happy I am about it... b***h." She said with a lip curl that dripped so thickly of sarcasm and vexation that it should have had a sign that warned against slipping.
"Maybe you'll both get lucky, don't they say if you die in dreams you die for real?" She added to offer them some morbid hope.
She let out a sudden half strangled gasp, almost releasing her hold on the trunk and falling on her own when for just a moment, she saw her own mask staring back at her, leering and lolling its painted red tongue out in silent laughter. When she blinked it was gone and her heart pounded like a fist against the inside of her ribs. She swore and rested her head against the black bark for a moment before she made herself keep climbing.
Nightmare... go figure.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 7:00 pm
The trail of blood wound away from the stag in gushes, like it had been grievously wounded before it fell in place -- or like something else had come away dripping with its blood and entrails. In either case, it looked like it had dried, and dried a while ago, at that.
It led in more or less a shaky straight line in one direction, looping oddly around a few tree trunks, and around a thicket of thorns at one point, but eventually it reached a clearing. The clearing was noticeable not in its size, for it was very small, but for the fact that it was as small it was and had stayed cleared and the fact that an old, rotting signpost stood in the middle of it.
--
To Lieutenant Moonstone, it read:
THE LORD'S WOODS TRESPASSERS WILL BE PUNISHED
--
To Sailor Ares, it read:
WELCOME BACK TO CARPATHIA HIS LORDSHIP IS EXPECTING YOU
--
To Calintha Johnson, it read:
HELLO CALI! HAVE YOU LOOKED UP RECENTLY
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 7:07 pm
Calintha decided to roll with it. The entire thing sounded a bit strange, but then again so did everything else. She absentmindedly tore another rose wrapped around her belt loop and dropped it on the ground, grinding it with the heel of her sneaker. Where the hell where all these roses coming from? She frowned, the girl despised roses. "Oh...okay then? Do you mind if I ask you more questions about that later?" It seemed like the best way to both kind've accept and kind've not, leaving the true decision until later. Now did not seem the time.
Plus, she really wanted to know what on earth a starseed was. She'd never heard of it before, and Calintha didn't know how she could have something she didn't know about. Also, what the black moon was. And everything else too- her head was swimming with unanswered questions.
She turned her attention to the girl that was in the trees. She seemed angry, but Calintha wasn't super sure about why.
She locked eyes with the ...senshi? and listened to what she said about the place. "Tartaros?" The word rolled off her tongue when she said it. It seemed a bit ominous, like her saying it made the forest a little darker. That also could've been the setting sun, which seemed to have set quite a ways down and was moving now horizontally along the horizon? It was disorienting, and you could catch a few glimpses of it over the tops of tress in the distance.
"I will try and remember that what I see and hear may not be real." She nodded, and smiled wryly and shrugged. "I'm no stranger to nightmares, so it should be fairly easy." She didn't look happy about following the trail of blood into an unknown and dying forest (it still made her wince a bit to see the trees and plants in such a state). Following the blood trail made her cringe even more, and the girl couldn't help but stare at it.
The sign shocked her. "It...says my name?" The rest of it confused her. Look up? Confused, the girl turned her eyes up, to the sky and the branches above her.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 7:10 pm
A bloody uniform was tangled in the tree branches above her: a red blouse with a pleated black skirt. A very familiar uniform.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 7:25 pm
Sailor Ares was crouched by the corpse, eying the trail. It might help if she could read the marks of whatever had led away from here. Up ahead, the Nega was flapping her lips. "Well, maybe we will get especially lucky and you will fall from the tree on your pretty little head -- that's a charming headband by the way, really." Ares didn't have time for this nonsense.
She turned to Cali. "Ask me whatever you want. Later." Then she started to walk away.
Up ahead, she could see the clearing and walked to it. There was a sign post. It was not a sign post she wanted to read.
To Sailor Ares, it read:
WELCOME BACK TO CARPATHIA HIS LORDSHIP IS EXPECTING YOU
...goddamn tricky Tartaros being tricky. "Oh... hm," she said. Not a very dramatic response. Hopefully, his lordship was Alexandros. But this was not something Ares was optimistic enough to believe. She knew that the makeup of Tartaros could change and this 'Carpathia' was not what she had seen. Not that it mattered. Tartaros had its own rules, and its own amendments to those rules.
Ares stepped back toward Cali. "I don't see your name. Does yours mention 'His Lordship' at all?" She hoped so, she really did. The handful of branches in her hand creaked.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 7:34 pm
"Does it?" she sounded surprised.
"It says the lord's wood to me." she said and glanced down at the horns wondering if that was the reason for her message. "It also says trespessers will be punished."
She sighed in frustration, she was reluctant to give up her horns, they were the only thing they currently had to defend themselves.
Instead she offered one to the civilian girl, no way she was arming the b***h senshi any better than she already was.
"Here..." She said simply.
"Want me to get that down?" She offered following their gaze to the odd uniform.
"This place is... interesting." She said fumbling for a word. She looked around again as well, half expecting to see the mask peer out from somewhere...
"Christ..." She muttered and rubbed her eyes.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 7:59 pm
Calintha shuddered at the sight. The girl took a step back, moving from under the uniform. "No." It was strong and harsh, and a little too forced. "Leave it where it is." Another shiver ran through her spine, and she wrapped her arms around her body. It was suddenly cold and she didn't even notice the two more roses that had found themselves wound into her clothes. "This place is maddening." She shook her head at the offer of the stags horn, the sound of it ripping off the dead dear still echoed in her mind and it still was sickening. "No... I'm alright, but thank you." The girl looked up at Ares, her eyes a bit hollow. "No...no it just says Hello Cali! Have you looked up recently? I don't like this place Ares." She couldn't stop herself from looking up at the uniform. She could tell that it was the same uniform of the school that had haunted her, but it was twisted, like the colors had been inverted. Calintha was not surprised, considering everything in this world was inverted.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 8:09 pm
Something fluttered in the trees, around the inverted Barren Pines uniform. A black bird of some kind, a large black bird, flew and perched on a lower branch, blinking red eyes at them.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 8:39 pm
Ares looked over at the Negaverse agent. "Yes, get that down." Most excellent -- let the enemy put herself in the way of potential harm. Ares was not afraid of the risk; she just only wanted to take the necessary ones. Tartaros was a world of darkness that Ares had never really explored. What horrors would it hold for her without the guide of the keeper of it? Where was Cassandra anyway?
Her eyes were locked on the uniform. Barren Pines, but not quite. Was that part of her nightmares? Or Cali's?
"Tartaros is a land of nightmares. Of course it's maddening." The words were a slow crawl from her lips. "Don't be afraid. Be aware."
Cali would need to step up to the plate if they were seeing this through, friend or not. Ares was full of all the tough love in the world. Her eyes moved back to the sign post. "To me, it reads: 'Welcome back to Carpathia. His Lordship is expecting you.'"
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 8:47 pm
Moonstone rolled her eyes, "Use your branches, I asked your friend." She said dismissively and frowned at the black bird.
"Quoth the raven..." She murmured, fascinated by its red eyes, she looked around to see if there were more, why was it not at the corpse... it looked like a carrion bird. Or were they the anticipated meat.
"If your not going to take an antler... you might want -something-, even your friend here has branches, she had them when I met her and she's the one who seems to know what's going on with this place... I'll take the lead, pick a direction..." She added and glanced with a flat stare at ares.
She wouldn't be missed, that was more than clear... but it gained them nothing to fight. Not here, she could save that for 'reality' if she made it back... trade one nightmare for another.
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 8:56 pm
The trail of blood seemed to continue on the other side of the clearing, winding through the trees onward.
Above them, the raven squawked once, and then said, in a very human voice: "You're not from around here."
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 9:02 pm
She nodded gratefully at the girl in the Indian clothes for choosing not to take down the uniform. The girl made some kind've sense though. Hesitantly she put her foot forward, moving towards the raven. After the first foot, she sighed and steeled herself, moving forward quickly and not seeming afraid.
There was a thicker stick laying at the base of the tree with the raven, sharpened at the end where it had splintered. After a second thought, she picked up a stray black feather and tucked it into her pocket. Calintha assumed that it was from the raven, and just like the one in the real world, it had called to her.
Back in the group, she held on to her smaller weapon, only about the length of her forearm, and about two inches thick. She didn't mention anything about the feather, just looking onward past the sign and following the trail of blood with her eyes.
"No... I am not from around here." She didn't know if it was addressing her or not, but she wanted to act brave for once in her life. She would conquer this nightmare if she could help it. Calintha stared up at the raven in the tree.
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