Welcome to Gaia! ::

((OOC INFORMATION:

All Zodiacs are in attendance, even if you can't actively play them. Primarily Chronos, Aries, and Zue will be talking during the meeting, but everyone is encouraged to join in; to keep things orderly, if your character has something to add or interject or dispute, ask Arrien for permission first via PMs (so that we don't tell two people to post at the same time) and we'll give you a green light when you're good to go.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask through PMs!))


7:12 pm. They were behind schedule. They were twelve minutes behind schedule. Normally, Sue didn't care about schedules - you stuck with them because you had to, but they were nuisance numbers that didn't have anything to do with how much work needed to be done or how much sunlight there was to do it. Today, though, he was very fixated on the time. It was freaking cold up here, at the designated meeting spot in Eagle Summit park. If he'd been in cat form - hell, even half-form - maybe he'd be a bit warmer - but no. Everyone was in civvies. And civvies meant he was stuck in his incredibly inefficient jersey, after sundown, on the top of a hill, waiting for the final members of their group to gather.

If anyone passed them in the darkening evening - a group of high school teens, secretive and cloistered, a goodly distance off the beaten path for how late and cold it was - they would probably think that they were about to conduct some Satanic ritual. One of their members was the virgin sacrifice; another must be hiding a knife somewhere to drain out her blood; a third would be possessed by the demon they summoned, and so would end humanity. If anyone saw them, Sue thought, it was for damned sure that the next thing they did would be to call the cops. Luckily, only the Zodiac Guard was foolhardy enough to be out here in this godforsaken cold, so there was nothing else to feel.

Serenade caught sense of their two missing members before Sue did. Her sigh carried over the cold air effortlessly, "There they are," even before they were in actual sight. Seconds after, Sue picked them out on his radar; and perhaps fifteen seconds after that, the final two members of their group pulled into the ranks, grumbling with the rest about the cold. There were fifteen of them there, including the newly-discovered Handmaiden, Sailor Flora. That, sadly, marked them at least five hands short - no Summer, Fall or Winter, no Sagittarius, and of course, no Eon.

Still. At least the ones that could be gathered, were. "It's about time," Sue grumbled, pushing his hands into his pockets so that he wouldn't be hugging his jacket tighter around him like a little girl at a horror flick. The official story, if any parents should be curious, was that they were meeting down at a pizzeria; the real story was that they'd all probably be wolfing down fast food on their ways home, so that no one would question why they were so hungry after having supposedly just come back from dinner with friends. Sue himself was indeed thinking of a warm restaurant, some hot food, a warm drink - but that couldn't happen. It would be a distraction, and all ears needed to be hearing was was said tonight.

Everyone was here now, so it was time to get things moving. "Princess. Will you call the meeting to order?"

Meeting to order. Sue barely knew what the phrase was supposed to mean, but it sounded like the right thing to say. That was good, he just needed to keep that up throughout the entire meeting, and he'd be doing his job right....

"If I can, ma'am."

You knew that Hero was in formal mode when she said ma'am: in the hallways it was Miss Soriano or rarely 'Serenade', and ma'am meant that it was Captain Aries speaking rather than Hero Barrett. Their voices were all pitched low. Hero was a believer in Constant Vigilance, and had given strongly-worded messages to everyone beforehand about not yelling out state secrets. Any Negaverse Lieutenant walking past would think they'd hit the jackpot, and then they'd have to kill them and it would be awkward.

There'd been a massive rumour going around Crystal that, two days ago, one of its girls had helped stop an aggravated robbery with the aid of a Meadowview girl. There'd been a near-fatal shooting, one not so near-fatal. It had been on the news, but the identity of the two girls had been kept secret for 'privacy issues.' Nonetheless --

"I've made contact with another victim of the thieves, Queen Nehelenia."

She'd only been able to tell Serenade shortly before the meeting, in complete vagueries: I have good news. Contact's been made. We'll discuss it, ma'am. Hero still looked worn and bothered, but there was less of that haunted shadow around her eyes. She went on past the hey, who, what?s into: "She was acquainted with the Moon Princess and is a Moon Princess herself, so we owe her our respect -- and she's brought a full coterie of cavaliers and senshi to get her crystal back."

It wasn't quite a lie, but it wasn't quite the truth.

Aurelia was wrapped up in a jacket and scarf, peering over her glasses. It was more like the old days when she said crisply, "Any more information on the thieves themselves?"

"On Wiseman? Nothing, barring that he's a powerful wizard." The next fact was less savoury. Everyone was looking at her as though she had a pizza and they were starving for it, and were also a little baffled as to why she wasn't forcefeeding them pizza in the first place. She could only say so much. "As for Black Lady, Nehelenia confirmed she refers to herself as 'Serenity', though how much we can read into this is up for debate."

The Zodiacs looked a bit stunned. Serenade's eyes were like saucers.

"Queen Nehelenia has offered full support. She'll be our most valuable ally, barring Captain Kunzite." Which was true, and she did not say it with a hint of restraint or grudge. The fact that Kunzite had offered her sword to Chronos without even pausing had filled her with a strange sense of shame. Hero shrugged herself into her coat, red hair a blaze in the gloaming. "I pledged full Zodiac support in turn."

All of this was said matter-of-factly.

Abeline was shivering as bad as Sue was, she was skinny enough that the cold air felt like tiny pinpricks of daggers along her spine.

She also had a slight limp. An incident in the barber shop. Added to the mostly healed 'kitten bite' on her arm and a few bruises from various other activities and she would soon be all kinds of colors. The other night in the aquarium had been fun too...

She was rugged up in a jacket and she had legwarmers over her knees- but Abeline was rarely seen wearing anything but a skirt and tonight was no exception. Skirts were stylish. And Abeline's fingers were numb. One must suffer for their love.

"I'm not adverse to helping the moon court." She started, her teeth chattering a bit as she stepped closer. "But what if they do decide that their princess is the thief and they'll follow her anyway?" Her gaze moved from Sue to Hero, but then to Chronos. "You are our princess, Serenade. My loyalty is to you first." She rubbed her clattering jaw awkwardly. Meaning that- "Whatever you ask, I will do."

Abeline's dark blue eyes pulled back to Hero. "But I doubt it would come to that... right?" Shock and horror the ice-queen was looking for reassurance.

Serenade was indeed pretty shocked at the news of another Princess, or well, a Queen in this particular case, who had her Crystal stolen by the same evil man. There were feelings of sadness, of understanding, and just a little of relief. If this Nehelenia couldn't hold off Wiseman as well...

No, she wasn't going to think about this anymore.

There was a nod confirming her agreement upon the alliance, and Serenade made a note to ask Hero for more details so she could approach this other Moon Princess. Moon Princesses seemed to be appearing in the city now, and there was confusion on the part of Black Lady Serenity.

Two allies now, and two important ones. Serenade did not sigh in relief, but was indeed resolute; this was a good thing, but it would have to count on how they worked together.

Eve too, looked put out at Zue's declaration about not trusting the Moon Court; her other team was full of Moon Senshi after all. And two senshi she knew had been mentioned by Virgo; she would have opened her mouth to speak if not for Serenade holding up her palm to prevent an ensuing argument, brow furrowed.

And then she said it. "I agree with Zue."

There was silence, and the Zodiacs were perhaps shocked that she was siding with her Guardian Cat with such a matter, but Serenade did not think it ludicrous at all. She had already lost two men in her Court, and was determined not to ever let it happen again. "You should always have another member of the Zodiac Guard with you. We are a team. I find it hard to believe that at times, one cannot find a Zodiac to patrol with." Cerise eyes traveled across them all, and perhaps, they would note a hint of disappointment. "There are twelve of us here. Why is so difficult to patrol with another Zodiac? Why is it even so hard to contact one of our teammates."

She took a deep breath as grim gazes were upon her. "While that stands, I must say that I trust the Moon Court. I am not adverse to fighting with them, as long as you have another Zodiac to accompany you." She turned to look at Eve, and then addressed her quietly. "I trust Helios."

And that was enough, for her to let Flora understand that it was alright to patrol if she could not find a Zodiac as long as Helios was with her. The Dream Priest had taken care of Flora long enough, after all.

Next to speak out was Giselle, who had, for the most part, been quiet and impassive, pale skin flushed against the cold air. She had done her listening, but at Elke's outburst, she composed her thoughts and spoke.

"I don't believe that the Lunars would turn against us either- or if they did, it would be highly unlikely. However, the fact that a Serenity has appeared does change matters. Rather than avoid the Lunars, I suggest that we aggressively ally ourselves to members of the Lunar Court, if there comes a time when our relations do sour with them, the more allies we have, the more likely there'll be a few weak links in their chain of command who will remain sympathetic to us. If they rally behind the Black Lady, unlikely as it is, though some of our old alliances may crumble, if we manage to preserve even one, we'll have a useful foothold in the court."

She cleared her throat before continuing, saying "As for traveling in pairs, I've been trying to meet up with more of the Zodiac Guard both on and off duty. If we want to work well as a team, we need more face time with each other, and I'd be willing to meet with," here she paused and bit her lip, probably thinking of the 'Petrova in my Pants' that she was subjecting herself to, "anyone, at any given time." Looking up at the gathered group, she added, "We need to ally with the Lunars, but after all we've been through, I believe we also need to work on the binding ties within our own team."

She paused, as if going through a mental checklist, before asking, "Has Astraea been informed of this Black Lady? Or are the Lunars still unaware of her presence? And are we going to meet formally with Nehelenia's court?"

Cell phones. Sue grimaced. Of course she wanted a goddamned cell phone. Of course that couldn't just be forgotten, buried, along with the rest of the heap of things Sue ought to know or be capable of, but hadn't the slightest clue about....

"I'll see what I can do," he said, and that was the end of that discussion. It wasn't like he could promise more, anyway.

But there was something else worth putting in here, while everyone was getting all up in arms about oh, the Lunars are our buddies! "The Moonies are supposed to be our allies, I agree. And if we're fighting monsters, or fighting Negaverse, we can count on them to be with us. But I've talked to more than a couple, Captain." His tone dropped, inches away from a snarl. "And I can't speak for them all, but what I've seen isn't good. The ones I've talked to, they've got a compulsion to find their Princess, but they don't know why. They aren't even sure if they want it." Like Foramen; like Nemesis. "They haven't got direction, and for how long they've been looking? They're desperate, some of them! And if some of them just happen to think that this Black Lady could be their Princess - if she connects even a little for them - then you know what? We're going to have a problem trying to figure who to trust! So if you think that your time is better spent making ties with them, rather than working with your own team--"

Sue stopped. It was the wrong tone to take; completely wrong. He wasn't winning an argument here, he was just planting doubts, and who did that serve? Not him, and not anyone else. It was times like these that Eon would probably have spoken up. Not this time, though. Probably never again. Time to mellow a moment, and work constructively - for the Princess's sake, if no one else's.

"What Giselle said makes the most sense. We need an emphasis on our team; but if we're going to go with the Lunars, too, we need to make it worth something." It was cold, rational, and strategic. If one didn't know better, it was the Zue of old that was speaking. His final word, addressed plainly to the Zodiac Captain: "I don't care about schedule conflicts; there's no excuse for letting down your team. Work around them."

"Of course," said her Captain, and Hero leant down as though she suddenly had a yen to fix the scarf wrapped around their Princess' slim throat. It was only a moment, but in that time she'd muttered through unmoving lips --

"Stand up straight. Smile. Don't let them see otherwise." In surprise, Serenade had straightened, her shoulders stiffening. "Good girl."

Hero put her hands back in her pockets. She had ceased bristling, and at Zue's curt reminder to not let down her team she had simply nodded. She looked as though she had a pole up her a** most of the time. This was just another time. In fact, she was nigh-on gracious when she said: "I'm cancelling Saturday-morning training -- you all know the basics of self-defense. You can all fight. You've got a safehouse at Andeon and Mackenzie's."

She had said their first names!

"So. Who can patrol with me this week?"

There might have been a Zodiac-wide flinch at Serenade's words of 'if you want to patrol together,' many sets of eyes shifting away from their princess, as if they had all been reprimanded. Among them, Gemini Beta felt the overwhelming flood of guilt wash over her, a cold, unnerving feeling that caused green eyes to close slightly too long to be a blink, her chin raising just slightly as if to accept the scolding. Her expression had sobered even further -- a far cry from the Geminis' usual teasing smirks.

If Mack was surprised at Hero's unusual lack of formality, the redhead didn't let on, standing next to her partner in crime with the same easiness she had throughout the entire meeting, her hands still stuffed firmly down into the back pockets of her jeans in an attempt to combat the cold. The hiss that came to her right brought green eyes momentarily from the Captain who had spoken, but only for a second, momentarily bewildered at the response. "Gemini Beta will," she spoke up, the words lacking their usual steadfast confidence, but certainly not spanning into a whisper.