|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 3:40 pm
Responsibility.
The word weighed heavy on most who were familiar with it on such intimate terms. While she was not quite intimate with it yet, she was starting to get the feeling that she soon would be and she wasn't certain as to how she felt about it.
Not wanting to bother Eridanus with her woes (she 'bothered' him enough, she was certain, with her worries and her tsking on any other day), she had gone to the one place where she could sit freely with her thoughts; the cathedral. The hour was late and the bells were silent. The birds had gone to roost and the bats had left theirs, leaving Corvus to the quiet company of the stone gargoyles... Namely the large one that she was leaning against that seemed to have frozen in a pose just as deep in thought as she was.
Corvus was no longer 'new' to the senshi business. Oh, she was when compared to others, and she was more than certain that there were still things that she didn't know; things that she and her team mates would find out as they progressed... But there were others out there too now, others that were just as new as she had once been. Just as new. Just as clueless.
She let out an exasperated sigh as she leaned away from the gargoyle only to lean back on her palms. It wasn't possible to keep them all safe... So why was she even bothering? What point was there in pondering how?
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:34 pm
Not every bell on top of the cathedral was silent; it was the bells on the ends of Spinel's sleeves that jingled as he approached the other senshi. Or he thought it was a senshi; he'd never seen one besides himself, wasn't exactly sure what it meant to be one. Instead of fussing about it, though, he'd been... overachieving. That was what he'd been told; corrupted senshi didn't have to take starseeds, but he liked to. Tonight had been slow, so he had ventured into the church to see the carillion.
That done, he had left the bell tower and spotted her. Curiosity peaked, he jingled his way down to the gargoyles. If she was a senshi, he wanted to take a peek at her starseed. Probably it was brilliant and lovely, like the evening star. "Good evening," he said, smiling brightly; his jet-black hair fell over his forehead, covering the star mark, and the bandolier covered the gaping, cracked hole in his chest.
"Are you a senshi," he asked, the perfectly Stepford smile still in place.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 8:03 pm
"Are you a senshi?"
She jumped, seeming to startle more easily these days than most. Had anyone asked her why she would answer in truth. It was the same nightmares that seemed to be plaguing all of Destiny City, or at least the people of Destiny City that she spoke with.
Her dreams, however, rarely involved scenarios like this. Attractive young men just appearing?
The senshi rolled her eyes at herself as she shifted to properly gaze at the source of the question, clearly curious... And hesitant. "Yes..." She offered none of her usual quips about how no one other than a senshi would bother being up here at this time of night (let alone at all), sarcasm seemingly set aside in favor of simply returning a question for a question. "And you?" Her brow lofted slightly as she tilted her head just a little bit more in an attempt to better make out just what he might be in the darkness.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:39 pm
His smile was definitely a little winning, but it faded when she jumped. "I didn't mean to startle you," he said, sounding chagrined as he made his way a little closer. Spinel spread his hands in a classic gesture of 'I come in peace'; how much taking to her leader he wanted, he didn't know. None at all, really. The leaders he had now were very satisfactory, and this was supposed to be his 'escape' from all that control. "I'm kind of lost."
So, if she was a senshi, that meant her starseed was more worthwhile than otherwise, eh? The smile came back, and he joined her by the gargoyle. This close, his uniform did have clearly senshi themes: the bow at his hips, the sailor collar. It was the bandolier that was confusing. "I think so," he said, "I was... awakened?... just a few days ago."
Hmm. Well, Vivianite's outfit had been black like his, but her accents were reddish pink. This strange dark-haired senshi's colors seemed to be white and purple--did that indicate something different? She also lacked the black star mark on her forehead, and the cracked hole in her chest. But he had expected that, so he didn't mention it. "What's your name?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 4:38 pm
She remained sitting until he moved closer, her entire body then moving in a fluid moment to bring her to her feet. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, or that anything about the stance she took was defensive, she just preferred being on even grounds when it came to new people... And she didn't know him well enough to ask him to sit with her, as she would have had the members of her team stumbled across her.
Lost. Recently awakened. Her brow furrowed as she listened to him, heart reaching out with a pang of sympathy. How many other senshi were there out just like him?
"Corvus. I'm Sailor Corvus." A soft smile was offered to him, only fading as her eyes drifted back out over the city. "It seems as though there have been several new awakenings within the past week." A guesstimate on her behalf, but one she was willing to stand by with the little proof she had gotten. Rosalind and their foolish battle, Galatea... How many more would be called to the service of the missing Moon Princess before they found her?
She took a deep breath, releasing it in a sigh as she pulled herself back from her thoughts so that she could look at him again. His attire didn't seem all that different from a regular senshi's, not that she had met many male senshi to compare him to. The darkness of it, in actuality, might have triggered a common link in her mind to the chain wielding senshi that had tried to cut down the Doom Tree; a smokey fuku with the only true color coming from the collar, the bow and the trim of lace...
It didn't, however, which was likely a good thing or she might have been a bit more wary. Instead she simply smiled once more, seemingly at ease enough for the moment. "... Did the cat give you a name?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 6:00 pm
Huh. When he was a human, most people ignored him--or else didn't react. He wasn't a threat. Had he done something to put her on guard? Annoyingly, there was a pang of guilt, and he ducked his head to hide the blush of embarrassment. Even though he was planning to kill her, he didn't want her to be uncomfortable while she died. He grinned at that; well, who was to say how it felt to be dead? And it seemed rather silly to be worrying about her comfort if she was going to be a corpse momentarily.
"Nice to meet you, Corvus," he said, holding out a hand as if to shake. So there were more senshi?... but not like him. He had only heard of two others, a Vivianite--nice girl, quiet though--and a Tisiphone. That was two, but not several.
He narrowed his eyes at the question about the cat. Were senshi awakened by cats, usually, then? He would have to find out, but who to ask? "Cat," he said, as if puzzled. Then, grinning, he continued, "More like an angry purple-haired man." Which was a vague enough description to hopefully get him by.
With a shrug that tried very hard to be blase, he answered, "My name is Spinel. Of Bells."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 8:44 am
Spinel. She played the name he had given through her mind as she tried to place it amongst the various heavenly bodies. When she couldn't she didn't linger on it, instead pondering the other things he had said. It wasn't as though she had known of an Eridanus in the sky, or a MuCephi... She considered herself lucky enough to at least know that Corvus was a constellation.
She extended a gloved hand to meet his, a tingle of unease washing over her the moment they touched. Her fingers tensed slightly as though willing her hand to draw back but she ignored it, holding herself steady. Silly nightmares, making her wary of the simplest things...
"My pleasure, I'm sure." A smile remained on her face, although it didn't quite reach her eyes; a sign of the hesitance that she couldn't quite chase away, perhaps. Maybe it had been the mention of an 'angry purple-haired man'. With memories of what had happened in the park still so vivid in her mind despite the weeks that had passed between now and then, there was one face that came immediately to mind and it made her shiver to think about it.
But wait... What about the Guardian of the Zodiacs? She had only caught a glimpse of him once, at the senshi meeting, but... Didn't he have purple hair? That slightly more comforting thought in mind, she shook off the remainder of her unease. "Sorry... It's a bit cooler out here this evening than I was expecting."
A poor cover, but as far as she was concerned it was better than flat out admitting that there were things out there that scared her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 11:12 pm
"So," he said, ignoring her shudder as best he could. It had started when he'd touched her, hadn't it? But it wasn't like he had forced her to shake his hand, so it couldn't be his own fault like with Vivianite. Still... she still didn't seem quite happy. "So regular senshi are awakened by cats?" He brushed his bangs behind one ear; quite on accident, the black star mark on his forehead was revealed. In fact, he'd never even noticed it had been covered.
Didn't much matter, though. He twisted, still gripping Corvus's hand as he pulled her towards him. This exposed the cracked and gaping hole in his chest, beneath his bandolier. The target of his reaching hand was pretty clear: the breastbone. Her starseed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 9:31 am
Corvus knew the moment she saw the mark on his forehead that something wasn't quite right. In some part of her mind she began to wonder whether or not she had somehow fallen asleep while leaning against her gargoyle companion. It certainly felt as though she were about to start falling into a nightmare, at the very least.
Her lips parted in a gasp as she felt his grasp tighten, eyes dropping from the dark star on his forehead to the void in his chest. She could feel her heart drop into her stomach where a wave of sickness began to brew along with the bubble of her sphere's power, always just beyond her reach when she needed it to be readily available now. "I should go..." Corvus tried to jerk her hand away from him but his grip seemed more firm than she might have given him credit for.
With that in mind she could have panicked, and a few weeks ago she might have. She might have given in the fear and despair and tried to plead her way out of the situation... But she had seen first hand just how well that worked for others. It didn't.
So instead of panic or pull, scream or struggle, Sailor Corvus narrowed her eyes, holding her breath for the brief moment his fingers touched her skin... And promptly stomped on his belled foot with the pointed heel of her laced sandals.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 9:58 pm
So much for keeping her comfortable in her last minutes; she wasn't so slow as a human, it seemed. Too bad, because he was pretty set on at least touching her starseed. What made a senshi starseed different from a normal human's? Why had he become a senshi when most of the other Negaversers simply became officers? Burning questions, these, thoughts his meditation in the mornings couldn't quite solve. There was so much information he hadn't collected yet! So much left to consider!
"Already," he asked, smiling apologetically; "I would really prefer you didn't. I've never fought another senshi before... you're my first!" The smile disappeared when she stomped on his foot and was replaced by a pained gasp; his hand jerked back and for a moment it looked like he might just stumble away and leave. No such luck for Corvus: He caught himself on his back foot and his other hand came up. Hopefully he would catch her throat, but if not he would take the jaw--if not the jaw, perhaps the shoulder. There was enough force behind his hit to possibly knock her flying, if her feet weren't grounded properly, but the awkward positioning of his feet caused it to deflect.
He didn't want to risk defeat; better to retreat, call it a draw. Spinel disengaged, quickly. He threw himself back, over the balcony, and teleported away.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
