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 Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 5:59 am
Babylon blanched to find attention suddenly turned on him. "L-Lina?" he sputtered. "Lina was a Negaverser?" He hadn't known that - clearly he hadn't known that, or else he wouldn't be so shocked by it now. They didn't understand how Babylon's little world view had just been flipped upside down: Lina was his idol. He'd practically wanted to be Lina when he grew up starting from the moment she'd saved him from that Youma.
"She never told me that," he said lowly, looking down. He focused his eyes on his and Vindemiatrix's hands, the way their palms touched and fingers entwined. If Babylon was going to have to be here finding out the dirt on his fellow guardian of Mercury, then he was glad he was not alone. "She said she'd awakened... unconventionally," he added, not sure if that was the right word. Quickly, he added, "But she didn't go into details! I don't know anything about it." Which was a bummer, because the look on Europa's face seemed like this had been his moment to shine and he'd blown it.
Europa sighed, but didn't feel completely put-out about the topic. There was more than one way to gut a fish, and what Babylon didn't know was she had a back door into that whole situation that had been kicked open a long time ago and had a foot stuck to the jamb ever since. "I'll ask Castor about it," she said, slightly reticent, because talking to Castor was one of those things that could either be okay or horrible.
Europa glanced towards Pasiphae. "You've met Lina Knight, though," she said. "Would you care to tell us your impressions of her?" Part of her thought this conversation should have been had another time. But the Jovians had all finally quieted down and begun contributing, so who was she to argue?
She glanced down at Callisto, seeking some improvement in her condition, and kept on rubbing her back. Europa wasn't sure which part of the proceedings had made the youngest scout cry, but she felt guilty for it any way.
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 7:28 am
Euanthe was surprised by how warmly the other Senshi responded to her admission of ignorance. Some part of her expected them to berate her for being so naive. And seeing their response to Callisto, who took it even worse, she was actually quite moved. She parted her lips, the hesitant beginnings of a response to Pasiphae and a thank you to Europa, but the second Senshi began her story before Euanthe could get the words out. She settled for a grateful smile and hoped that would be clear enough.
The information about starseeds was particularly illuminating. Euanthe had long wondered what it was that made her different from 'normal' people. What really made a Senshi. Why not her parents? Starseeds appeared to be the answer. Her hand was still resting at that spot over her chest and for a moment she just spaced out, trying to to feel its presence there. Just as Europa had said, it wasn't something easy to find, and she gave up not another moment later. Just knowing it was there was enough, she decided and let her hands drop to her sides.
The prospect of dying seemed pretty damn serious, but Euanthe could see where Europa was coming from when she said there were fates worse than death. She shuddered to imagine becoming someone who could do evil without regret or remorse. And to think that Ares person, a Senshi herself from what Euanthe could gather, had done it to others against their will... it was just terrible. Really, it was just that the whole cause seemed sort of doomed when even the protectors and warriors for light could fall and transform into darkness so easily. If they were all so weak and human, so easily twisted, what hope did light?
But it sounded like there was hope, regardless of how small it seemed. And they mentioned a name she actually knew. Euanthe might have chimed in and tried to say something helpful, except she remembered that she really didn't actually have any direct connection to Castor, who in turn seemed to just be a means to talking to this Lina Knight person, so really there was just nothing helpful for her to say at all. She shut her mouth before it even began to work and waited quietly.
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:31 am
Valhalla forced back a glare that he wanted to shoot at Babylon for his comments. He didn't think the ranking thing should matter. They could obviously feel that he wasn't that high of a rank. They didn't need fancy buttons or bars on their jackets to explain their rank, not when they can sense energy. He knew without looking that Europa was easily the strongest and probably most experienced of them all. Kallichore and Ganymede were behind her. The others... less experienced, like himself.
Declaring rank was pointless, and a waste of time.
He nodded lightly to the others as they introduced themselves, before glancing down at Callisto sitting between Europa and Ganymede. He felt bad for her... She seemed so young and was obviously afraid and upset. She couldn't be more than a few years older than his brother, and just the thought of young children fighting again made his stomach churn uncomfortably. What if his brother was running around in costume, too?
When the others brought up things like phones and keeping in contact with the knights (What was the universal name for them?? If there were a handful of pages and a knight and a squire? Would they all be addressed individually?? That was stupid...), Valhalla lifted his free hand to take off the head piece that he was wearing over his right ear.
"I can give you my number. A group of us has these headsets to keep in contact with each other. It's not anything magical like your phones, but it's how Ganymede called me earlier," he explained, and then paused for a moment. "Or you can just show up on this roof. I, and I'm sure skippy over there, too," he jerked his head towards Babylon, "can feel your energy from some distance... I guess that's the exchange for no magical cellular devices.
After a few moments, he forced his hand free of Ganymede and made his way over to where he'd placed the snacks and leftovers from his apartment, picking up both a bag of cookies and a water bottle, before bringing it back over where he'd been standing. He knelt down in front of Callisto to offer them to her, but wasn't going to force her to take them if she didn't want cookies or water.
"How old are you...?" he wondered, hoping the sadness in his voice was drowned out by curiosity. "Please don't cry," he requested, although it was more of an attempt at getting her to calm down rather than seriously stop crying. "We won't let anything happen to you, okay?"
It broke his heart to see them here like this... Euanthe seemed scared, too, or at least unnerved about what was going on. He wanted to make sure she was okay as well. And there was Cyllene and Vindemiatrix who didn't know what was going on, really, but were both willing to help out. Hell, he wished he could invite them all down to his apartment so they didn't have to be standing around on the roof, potentially attracting unwelcomed guests... But then he would have to tell them all who he really was, and he was pretty sure that Zia might have a heart attack... Well... if she was in her mind enough to know what he was doing. She seemed pretty spaced out...
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:39 am
Tomlin ate the tuna. There was no point letting it go to waste, and no telling when he’d next be going without.
He had settled himself quite deliberately away from his senshi to make sure he could keep up his part of their energy-damping efforts. He listened, though. Head bent and eyes closed, he added up the toll of information to what he already knew. It was worse than he’d imagined, worse than what he’d seen first-hand. Those poor senshi. That poor cat.
Concentrating as he was, it took a while before he picked out Callisto’s soft weeping from the rest of the discussion. The cat left his post to join the circle at last. His tail brushed Europa's arm as he ducked beneath it to reach his senshi. Callisto was curled in on herself, despite the worried people surrounding her. He rubbed against her shins to make sure she noticed him, then nosed his way into the impossibly narrow gap between her stomach and the drawn-up legs, forcing his way into a snuggle. It wasn’t comfortable for either of them, but he was confident that she’d turn back into a comfy lap in a moment.
“I’ll protect you,” he said. “I’m here with you. And with this court, we can protect others too."
He closed his eyes again, keeping the bad guys out of their business.
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:53 am
Perhaps Europa was right to worry; the brunette scout stiffened the moment that the Eternal senshi touched her. Oh god what had she done, she was going to get thrown off a building. That was ridiculous and also unlikely and on a level she knew that. Instinctively, though, she was waiting for Europa's embrace to turn to iron clamping her still and keeping her from leaving. After a time, when Europa didn't let go and didn't tighten her grip, Callisto relaxed a little. Then, after a little longer, she rested her head against the elder senshi's shoulder.
People could be purified. That was a relaxing idea, a good idea, one that smoothed out the hunched line of her shoulders. People were throwing around all kinds of names, too, names she didn't know and wasn't sure she wanted to know. A bad guy going good, good guys going bad, this was complicated like a story but not in the way she wanted it to be. Everything felt very… uncertain, and she finally unviced her hands her hands from around her knees to scrub at her tears. Just in time for her cat to force his way in there, in fact, and she smiled a little at Tomlin. Of course Tomlin would keep her safe! So safe, because he was the bravest of kitties.
Then there was the tall brunet page… Valhalla? Her expression towards him was nowhere near as trusting as the look she'd just given Tomlin, but she knew that her cat would never, ever let anyone near her that he didn't trust. "I'm fourteen," she said, jerking her chin up. Was he going to tell her to go away now? Some selfish little part of her liked the attention, but the rest of her was embarrassed. No one else was crying, but she'd thought… she hadn't realized, more like, that evil could make her just like them. Somehow, not even seeing the black-clothed senshi that had attacked her and Kallichore had sunk that in like hearing people discuss it in terms of betrayal… She stroked a hand down her cat's back, and kissed the star on his forehead before accepting the water bottle from Valhalla. Before, she hadn't touched the snacks because she hadn't thought she was allowed, but if it was okay…
"So… so the bad guys can make you turn evil, but… these Castor and Lina people, they know how you can turn back," she asked, the tremor in her voice at make you turn evil giving a pretty accurate idea of what exactly had set off her tears. "But if that happens, what about your… your family? And these parallel people, they're evil too?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 12:08 pm
There was a hollowness in Europa's stomach as she considered Callisto's question. She'd asked that same question to Leto earlier, and no matter how certain she was of the answer, she didn't want to tell it to Callisto. The younger scout seemed fragile enough tonight with the added prospect of disappearing completely and never being found.
She glanced over at Zirconia and picked her words carefully. "Not all of the parallels are evil," she said quietly to Callisto. "Zirconia isn't evil - Zirconia's our friend and she's helping us a lot by being here tonight. But Ares is a parallel and she became evil, and she's making her court evil..."
She glanced around at the assembled senshi and knights, reached over and gave Tomlin a scratch behind the ears. "No one here is evil," she said, finding her resolve. "No one here is going to become evil. No one is going to make you evil, Callisto. We're going to protect you and we're going to protect each other."
Being a moon of Jupiter meant never having to be alone.
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 12:20 pm
As the meeting went on, Pasiphae continued the social strategy that had served her so well in the past; she sat quietly and listened when those around her spoke. If there was a time where she had something to contribute, she'd pipe up and add her two cents, but so far little opportunity had presented itself. Europa and Kallichore were leading the information sharing now, which seemed to be going well on the wole. She felt sorry for those who were learning some things for the first time, and if she had been a more foroward person, she would have reached out further to them. At least one seemed gravely upset, but there were already others, more capable members of the group, to care for her... and Pasiphae didn't want to be in the way. The Shame Senshi understood how shocking the information could be only too well; she hadn't been more informed than them not too long ago. There was always more to learn, always something to complicate what you thought you knew... if she stopped to thikn about it, in many ways she was still probably not as informed as she could be.
At the moment, however, her attention focused on first Kallichore and then Europa as each spoke her name. She was, apparently, the Jovian expert on purification... even though she knew nothing more than she had already shared. Though nervous about having nothing new to add, Pasiphae was glad to have something to contribute to the meeting. She hoped it was easier to hear from her than it had been for her to hear it from Castor. She rasied her voice slightly to make sure that the whole group could hear her, "I met Knight Lina at the Youma Hunting competition. She and Castor spoke about how she had been purified through the power of... Cosmos, though I don't know who or what that is. Castor said he didn't think anyone else could be saved... but Knight Lina disagreed. I never knew Lina as a Negaverser, but... I believe in her position more than Castor's. She seemed to be a bit more... professional."
She cleared her throat and offered one more observation, this one far more tentative since she wasn't repeating a factual story, "And I think... I think what's most important to remember is that they're human, like us. So... so I think we should work to save them. I don't know how yet, but... they're not monsters like youma. We don't have to destroy them--we shouldn't destroy them."
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 12:40 pm
Ganymede felt as if he no longer had anything to contribute. He'd had nothing to begin with, except anger and disgust and harsh words he shouldn't have said, and who really wanted any of that?
He frowned at himself and didn't look at anyone, but he listened. He didn't recognize any names. Except 'Lina,' but that was only because Kallichore had mentioned her before. Other than that, nothing seemed familiar, because he didn't know anything, even now. Months and months had gone by and he still knew nothing. He'd only suspected there were 'bad' or corrupted senshi as of late, and never had he heard a single word about Parallels until tonight.
It made everything seem so much worse, this sudden influx of information, yet it didn't change his mind at all.
"I agree with Pasiphae," he found himself saying, voice still lowered. He missed the feel of Val's hand, and he copied Europa and placed a hand along Callisto's back to make up for it.
He didn't know what else to add. Pasiphae had summed up his feelings on that topic quite nicely. He was at least pleased to learn that there was someone else who thought similarly, and glanced over at her to study her a bit more. He hadn't bothered to look very long at anyone before. Now he paid a bit more attention.
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 12:44 pm
It took a long while, but eventually, Zirconia did make her way over to Kallichore and flopped limply at her side. When they started talking about how people could be saved, turned back, her own thoughts turned to her past but she didn't feel the need to announce she had once served Chaos herself.
The mention of the Parallels being evil, though, she had to speak up about that. "Ares does not serve the Black Moon. Ares abandoned our Moon Queen's vision when she accepted Chaos. No matter what she says, she doesn't represent the parallels. Ares is an abomination," She snarled, mildly surprised, if only in the back of her head, that her anger had manifested in that way.
Still, Nehelenia's memory and passion for justice was still fervently alive in Zirconia's mind, and she couldn't stand for Ares tainting everything, tainting her effort to do things right this time. Tainting their image, their home, everything.
But now that she had worked herself up into a speaking mood, "Purifying someone who's been corrupted by Chaos takes incredible power," She snorted, skeptical about this 'rumor'. If there was a Cosmos running around with the power to purify, why were the senshi still floundering around like this?
Incompetent White Moon.
"It's an impractical solution to count on. Especially since, I'm quite certain, most negaversers have no interest in being purified in the first place."
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 1:16 pm
Europa nodded, taking in her teammate's points. While she could certainly see where Ganymede and Pasiphae were coming from, she was more inclined to agree with the more worldly Zirconia. "It's tempting to think that we can purify everyone," she said delicately, "But she's right. There are plenty of negaversers who have no interest in being rehabilitated, and it's not practical to think we could even attempt to purify even one negaverser. I don't have that kind of power, and if any of you is hiding a great crystal in your skirts, now would be a good time to say so."
What she was thinking, really, was that she wanted to talk to Cosmos, and to Chibimoon, and to Lina - but all of that could wait. Instead, Europa turned to Pasiphae. "I'm giving you an assignment," she said. "Before we meet again, I want you to come up with a proposal about how, exactly, do we go about cleaning up the streets if we can't kill them and we can't purify them."
She glanced around the group. "You can take anyone you see here to help you brainstorm. Hell, you guys can volunteer." Really, Europa wanted to see them try to do it, because she'd thought herself to a stalemate on the topic. Ultimately, there didn't seem to be a workable happy medium between killing them all and purifying them all.
Maybe a fresh pair of eyes could work it out better than she could.
"I'll expect a full report next time we meet," she said, smiling at Pasiphae. "Gold star sticker for the day, by the way."
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 5:29 pm
It hurt to hear Zirconia and Europa imply that their human enemies couldn't be saved, but Pasiphae did her best not to let it get her down. Unexpected support from Ganymede helped bolster her confidence, and she gave him a friendly smile when she noticed his studying of her. That smile didn't stop the seriousness in her voice, however, "Maybe they don't want to be saved... but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. There's got to be a way to show them the truth... to help them."
Pasiphae's eyes widened whenever the Eternal Senshi gave her her assignment, and she protested, concern evident in her voice, "I'll be more than happy to work with someone, but... but I don't know if I'm the best person to put in the lead positon. What about Kallichore, who already has so much information? This is... this is an important assignment, so I think it should go to the person who'll do it the best!"
Then, the professionalism faded as the compliment from Europa registered. The Shame Senshi flushed, waving her hands in front of her as if to ward of said gold star sticker, "I... I haven't done anything more than anyone else here! If anyone deserves a gold star, it's you and Kallichore for being so brave, or Zirconia for coming, or... or for those who we hardly know who showed up to meet with us and support us. And those who did who came anyway. All of YOU deserve stars!"
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:12 pm
Vin remained seated beside Babylon, keeping quiet as he apparently had far more to learn than to offer for right now. He glanced at the others as they spoke, looking surprised as he learned that there was, in fact, one Negaverser who had been purified. The Senshi of Wine could agree that not killing was better than killing - he was not wholly sure he would ever be able to bring himself to deal a final blow. Nor be comfortable later with knowing that he had.
The scant encounters he had had with the Negaverse officers spoke to Zircoia's mention that the majority of them did not want to be purified. Vin could understand it, too - the worst villains were the ones who believed their cause to be just. Difficult as it was for him to see the goodness in anything the Negaverse had done.
Europa's task seemed a lofty one, but also a difficult one. Perhaps impossible. Neither killing nor purifying were viable options, but Vindemiatrix could not think of any alternatives. Disable them? Somehow? They had some time, but this was not a case where he expected an answer to come out of nowhere, short of an epiphany.
He did always seem to get his best ideas in the shower, though ....
At Pasiphae's embarrassment, though, Vindemiatrix did speak up. "Hey, you have me scanned in your phone," he reminded her, then added with a small laugh, "And you've done more than me, it sounds like. I'll help you if I can. If I think of anything at all. I can call you. Or you can call me."
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:49 pm
"But I think you are the best person for the job," replied Europa. She felt bad, asking a rookie senshi to go home a design an impenetrable fortress, but she told herself it was a training exercise. It wasn't so much that she was setting Pasiphae up for failure as she was teaching her about the capabilities of their enemies. And besides...
"You've been asking all the right questions this entire time," explained Europa, giving Pasiphae an encouraging smile. She leaned forward and pushed her hands gently down. "You stayed calm even when you had every right to take sides. I want to see what you can come up with."
So, she'd made herself clear enough that this was some sort of test. Hopefully, Pasiphae wasn't one to freak out too much about that - but then, that would tell Europa something as well. She smiled at Vindemiatrix. "Take Sailor Vindemiatrix if you want. I mean it. Take anyone you want to help you. You have a whole team to work with to help you design the perfect prison. You can ask any of us anything if it helps you plan."
The senshi of the deep smiled coyly at her team. For a first meeting, she supposed this had gone pretty well! "Does anyone have anything they'd like to say before we adjourn for the night?" she asked. "The floor's open."
Prompt delivered, she leaned closer to Callisto. "Don't leave just yet, I want to talk to you. Over a late dinner, maybe?"
Babylon cleared his throat. "I, uh, I guess I'll help any of you who needs it," he offered. Although the out of place feeling had receded, it was still definitely there. "There's not really a good way to contact me, but Vin's got my cell number?" It probably seemed a bit odd that he was uncertain about this, as someone generally had your cell phone number or they didn't, and there wasn't truly an in-between.
"It was good meeting all of you," he added lamely, still feeling rather fish-out-of-water.
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:57 pm
No, he wasn't going to tell her to go away. Callisto revealing her age made his heart ache, it seemed. She was only fourteen...? That was barely old enough to understand what was going on. It wasn't fair.
He offered her a comforting smile and a nod, but kept quiet since the others were busy explaining what was what. Parallels, corrupts... And when no one mentioned wanting his phone number or made mention of just showing up on the roof, he carefully replaced it over his ear. That was fine with him. They had other things to deal with, and there was clearly a lot of emotional stuff going on.
Valhalla couldn't be scanned into a phone. Neither could Babylon. It didn't work like that because he wasn't a senshi. If the others wanted him as a contact, well, he'd offered. They would have to call on a normal cell phone, probably, but it was better than nothing.
There were a lot of things he was questioning about this 'group'. He was sure all the people were great, but... something was rubbing him wrong about the whole... 'you have assignments! go!' business. Valhalla understood the importance of getting information and staying on top of things, but was there a better way to do it and not make him feel like he was in grade school again? Maybe he was just tired and needed to get some sleep. Or maybe the amount of people he didn't know and the energy they were all giving off was starting to get to him...
Either way, he couldn't leave until the rest of them left, so he took a few steps back to lean against the roof's wall around its edge — perfect height to sit, really.
All of this 'gold star' business was a little odd. He knew they just meant that they valued each other, but why gold star analogies...?
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 7:12 pm
"Just as a head's up... If I'm gonna be asked to do homework for this whole Senshi team thing, it ain't gonna happen. I don't do it for school and I won't do it for this."
After the words spewed out of her mouth, she realized this would definitely make her look as if she wasn't a team-player. But Cyllene wouldn't pretend to be someone she's not- and to be completely honest, she cared more about herself than she did about a bunch of strangers at this point.
Sailor Cyllene doesn't play well with others, and while it's entirely possible that she would grow to trust the people around her- she didn't yet. She didn't know them well enough and as far as she was concerned, they didn't know a thing about her, Senshi or Civilian. She was new to this whole Senshi thing, reckless and rather stupid about it and she'd rather not drag a large group of people into her mess if she could help it.
"Either way, it was nice meeting you all," she chimed out to the group. She quickly scanned the other Senshi into her phone and meandered her way over to the snacks that Valhalla had brought up.
With a quick flash of a grin, she waved to the group, snatched up a bag of chips and swung herself onto the fire escape to head back to St. Magdalena's Seminary.
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