|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 8:47 pm
Why was this place so dreadfully cold? Alkaid might have forgotten a lot of things, but she was pretty sure she remembered central heating having already been invented.
Unfortunately, the newly corrupt senshi didn't have anywhere to go until Rhodizite and the higher-ups figured out a place for her to stay on Earth. As far as she could tell, that might take forever. To occupy herself she'd taken to exploring parts of the Negaverse, marveling at the architecture and the contents within the freezing headquarters. Well, at least as much as she dared. She was all too aware that the Queen lurked in certain parts and she wasn't about to cross paths with her and risk getting herself into trouble.
So far, it had been ultimately uniform and uninteresting. The reflective floors were the same wherever she went - from hallways to her temporary bedroom that was no warmer than any other part of the grand building. She'd have killed to find a library and dig into some books but she'd not really found any room that even remotely resembled one. In fact, the few rooms she did stumble upon were kind of barren, like no one lived in them. The hallways were about as welcoming as any room she'd found so far.
"I wish my fuku was longer," she groaned under her breath, tucking her arms around her body. Her powered up form could resist a lot of temperature, but even this place was chilling her to the bone. She stopped in a hallway and leaned against the cold, barren wall. At least her cape provided a little comfort against the chill. Finally too bored to continue exploring the place, she stared off down the hallway she didn't feel like following. "Maybe I'll just go back to my room," she mumbled, turning back towards the way she had come. Sadly, her room wasn't anymore interesting than the rest of this place.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 8:59 pm
Word did not exactly spread quickly through the Negaverse, but the news of a new corrupted senshi reached Spinel fast enough. There weren't many details--just that it was a girl, about his age, and she was in the Negaverse subspace.
This was enough for him to go on.
Wildflowers were hard to find in the dead of winter; that cold snap led to a lot of them dying, even the ones safely ensconced in greenhouses. But there were always roses and edelweiss... so he was wandering the subspace with an armful of yellow roses and white edelweiss, seeking even a hint of the strong, dark aura of a corrupted senshi.
But then, they weren't really corrupted, were they? Just purified. Better.
Finally, wandering the hallways, he found her; she had platinum-blonde hair reaching to the backs of her calves, formed into dreads. Her hair had to be heavy, he reflected, picking up his pace. The faint jingling of bells, as always, gave him away. "Excuse me," he said, coming up beside the blonde senshi and offering her the flowers. "These are for you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 9:16 pm
Alkaid heard the bells before she saw who they belonged to. The wildflowers he was carrying also permeated the air with a strong fragrance that she was aware of even before he stepped up to her side.
Her head snapped to look at him as he caught up to her and spoke simultaneously; it was only through her ability to mask her feelings that she didn't yelp in surprise, though her eyes did widen a fraction. Seeing that it was another corrupt senshi, she let out a soft, barely audible breath of relief. Then again, who did she really expect to sneak up on her in a place like this? Everyone here had to be an ally. She just needed to get used to the cold, creepy feeling the empty halls gave her.
"You surprised me," she said softly, though her large orange eyes immediately fell to the bunch of flowers in his hand. Her tight-lipped expression instantly softened and she reached out to take them from him without any hesitation, her eyes drawn in particular to the large yellow roses. "I like yellow roses," this time her voice was even more quiet and a little far off, as if she wasn't really speaking to him. She knew that she liked them, though she didn't know why - it was just a feeling. It instantly made her a little baffled but still pleased at the same time.
"Thank you," she tucked the bouquet into the crook of one arm so she could free up the other. Once done, she held out her pale hand to him, "I'm Alkaid". Her head tilted a little to the side then as she studied him, as if she might be able to figure out who he was just by appearance alone. Unfortunately she had never seen him before, unless she'd forgotten, and she hadn't been provided with much information on the other corrupts here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 9:30 pm
She was pretty, he noted absently. Not as lovely as one particular senshi he'd met, but certainly pretty. Then, he hadn't seen a truly ugly person in the Negaverse yet; a few average men scattered around, among whom he counted himself, and he kept hearing something about a middle-ranked officer who looked like a handsome male but was a girl...
Well, it'd be rude to speculate. He tore his mind off that track, and back to the girl's orange eyes. She sounded distant, which was alright. He'd heard along the grapevine that most senshi, upon corruption, forgot most of their past. Well, the ones who'd spent time as proper senshi--another pro on the side of the Negaverse. Now was not the time to tell her this, though.
"Of course," he said, "You're welcome." He didn't mention the fact that he would have done the same for any other new member of their group; instead, he just offered her an encouraging smile and shook her hand. "Spinel, senshi of bells. In case you couldn't tell," he said. Every gesture of his brought a twinkling of the copper bells on his sleeves--and, embarrassingly, on his toes. Someone had put those there, he thought, and when he found them he was going to rip them limb from limb. "It's a pleasure to meet you. How long have you been wandering around?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 9:52 pm
Absently she noticed that his hair, like hers, was extremely long - though his was tucked into a neat pony tail at the back of his head. She reached up to touch one of the very long dreads that fell to the back of her knees, wondering if that was a corrupt senshi thing. She supposed it might be, but she didn't have anyone else to compare things to and her memory of corrupt senshi was, like everything else, a little lacking.
"Oh, that makes sense," she smiled as the peal of the small bells rang out in the empty air around them. It reminded her a little of an elf, what with them on the tips of his shoes like that. Not that she would ever mention it, she didn't want to insult him. "My fuku isn't nearly so enlightening. In fact, there's not much to it at all it seems." She plucked at the lacy end of her skirts, once again wishing that it was just a little longer for the sake of warmth. "I'm the Senshi of Guidance, it's a pleasure to meet you too Spinel."
She fell back into step slowly, curling her now freed hand back up around the bouquet and holding it close so she could smell the strong aroma. "Oh, I don't know, a day or so?" She shrugged her shoulders as she said so, her cape rippling with the motion. "It's hard to say in here, I find I don't keep track of time very well inside this place."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 10:50 am
She was plucking at her hair, looking at his. He reached back to check that it hadn't come loose, was pleased to see it hadn't. It had only come undone once, and he'd henshined down rather than wrestling with it; but you couldn't transform back to your civilian self inside the Negaverse subspace. The aura of the place demanded your true form. "It's sort of a corrupted senshi thing," he explained, "the hair? All the others have it, too." And the cracked hole in the chest. And the black star marking on the forehead. Although... Maybe it was just hidden under the chain on her head.
But surely someone else would explain that to her.
"I've noticed that's a trend," he said, with a little embarrassment. "I haven't seen a senshi in a modest fuku yet." Guidance. Huh. He wondered, a little, what her powers were--he knew that his powers repelled others, but most particularly senshi. Guidance...
Well. Time for that later, too. "Who could," he said cheerfully, "no clocks. Are they looking for a place for you to stay? Is it true you really remember nothing from before your corruption?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 12:59 pm
Her contemplating look vanished as he spoke up, talking about the exact thing she had been wondering over. His perception made her smile - she was glad to know that at least one of her new comrades had a brain on their shoulders. Then again, she hadn't really met any others. "That's a relief," she dropped her hand and tucked it back around her bouquet, "I thought I was going to look really out of place with these things." Then something he said registered with her - all the others. "Are there a lot of us then? How many exactly?" She was curious about a lot of things in her new life, but this was very intriguing. The corrupt senshi were her brethren, more so than the Negaverse lieutenants, and she wanted to know how many of her kind existed - how many there were to befriend.
"I don't think it's too awfully revealing, at least," she moved her hand to pluck at the leggings, "I get to keep these. If I didn't I would be absolutely horrified." She shook her head at the thought, trying not to think what it would be like to run around in the skimpy dress alone - her leggings were her security. At least whatever being was behind the grand design of corrupt fukus had decided to take pity on her.
"Ahh.." she began softly, worrying at her bottom lip for a moment as he probed into uncomfortable territory. She shifted the bouquet in her arms and stared ahead for a long moment, trying to think of the best way to answer his question. "I don't know who I was, who I was born as," she shrugged a little and then let her eyes drop to the yellow roses. "I remember parts of my Senshi life, though it's fuzzy and sometimes isn't all together, kind of like an old TV that uses rabbit ears." She frowned deeply then, her brows knitting at the same time, making her look not only worried but also.. confused. "Then there are things like that - I know what rabbit ears are, which I could only know from my civilian life, right?" She let out a long, tired sigh, which made it abundantly clear that she had been thinking about this very thing a lot.
"But your question," she glanced sideways at him with her large orange eyes, "is worded like you remember your life. Do you?" She stopped walking then and turned to look at him, examining him as if his outward appearance might give her some hint to his difference.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 4:15 am
Dreads was a bit unique, he'd give her that on a silver platter--although the variety seemed almost endless. Braids and loose were common... he was waiting to see someone else with a ponytail, personally. "Six," he said, "Six of us that I know of, including you. There's... Vivianite, Hel, Tisiphone... myself, you... and a blonde one, with long braids." Actually, blonde was a predominant color, wasn't it. Perhaps there was a trend, here. "I'm most familiar with Vivianite. She's one of the most experienced of us." Most familiar with and most interested in, a better way to say it. But also rude, and Spinel tried to never, ever be rude.
"It could be worse," he agreed. He wasn't quite sure how. Perhaps without the leggings? But that would be entirely too cruel.
He took a bodily step back when she appeared uncomfortable, although he wasn't sure why; it wasn't his physical presence that was troubling her, after all, but a question he'd asked. It was part of his methodology as a corrupted senshi as well--make someone comfortable before you kill them. Well, he didn't intend to murder Alkaid, but the principle applied... "Yes," he said, sounding surprised. "So does Vivianite. The loss of memory, that only seems to apply when you were awakened before... as a senshi like them. Because Vivianite and I were brought directly to the Negaverse, we didn't lose our memories--or that's the theory I've heard."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:37 pm
"Six," she repeated softly, as if that number was dearly important to her. In a way it was - she knew now that there were five other people like her, five kindred spirits that she could (hopefully) turn to if she needed questions answered. Beryl may have been her new queen, the negaversers her new comrades in arms, but the corrupt senshi.. those were her brethren.
"Vivianite?" she caught the name after he spoke, like it was echoing in her head and begging her to acknowledge it. That was all she managed to gather though, that inkling, that familiarity - there was nothing else. "I know that name," she said with a breathy sigh, indicative of the endless frustration she was feeling. "I have no idea why though." She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, worrying it for a moment in her contemplation, but eventually released it and the attempt to draw anything out of the dark, black abyss filling her memory.
She noticed his step backward, but chose not to comment on it. She was far too interested in the information inside of his mind to worry about dissecting his every move. She wanted him to share and she would have done anything to get him to do that. He had something she wanted and she wasn't about to drive him away by verbally picking him apart."So the theory," the tone of her voice suggested she didn't particularly like to dabble in theoretical things, "is that if I had not been awakened then I would have been able to retain my life?" She sighed and glanced down at the bundle of flowers in her arms, staring at them like they were some kind of reprieve from all of this craziness she had been thrust into.
Finally, she smiled, albeit weakly, and looked back up at Spinel. "I don't know if I envy you or not. You know who you were born as on this earth, but I know.. that I did so much as a senshi. I saw the stars." She didn't know why, or when, or with whom - but she knew she'd been. As much as she would have liked to know if she had family, if she'd had friends, maybe it was better that her corruption had taken that from her. What kind of daughter or friend could she be like this? Her only purpose was to serve, and that she could do, perhaps especially well since she had no one to protect.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 12:54 pm
"If you know that name, it's likely Vivianite can tell you more about who you were," Spinel said, his cheerful tone not giving away a spike of worry. Had Vivianite been talking to Moon senshi? He wasn't sure if the emotion he was feeling meant he was angry with her for it or worried about her well-being. Wasn't she just as devoted to the goals of the Negaverse as he?
The girl in front of him was worried, though, and that drew his attention. "You'll be fine, even lacking your memories," he said. His confidence was unfeigned; he didn't see a need to fuss. It was much more worthwhile to dedicate time to freeing the Earth of its invaders, wasn't it? "The lack of memories, if anything, just proves how superior the Negaverse are to the other senshi." And Alkaid was privileged to have joined them, he thought.
He fussed with the handle of one of the larger bells on his bandolier; the bells didn't ring. This was because there was a small leather cover on the clapper--what a ridiculous name--and it was a good thing. Right now was not the time to play a jaunty tune with what amounted to his weapons. Seeing the stars... why would you want to? There was so much here on Earth... "That's gone now," he advised, his tone nothing but kind. "You'll probably never get it back... So it's best to just move on."
(The hypocrisy of Spinel saying this would be lost on Alkaid. Still, he thought she needed to hear it.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:41 pm
Her eyes instantly snapped back up to Spinel as he spoke so bluntly of forgetting her past. Her mouth pursed a little, an obvious sign that she was a little displeased with that idea. She had lost so much, more than she probably knew, and he thought it'd be best if she just forgot about what little she had retained? It felt like all she'd ever done was forget!
Then her emotions ebbed and began to make room for reason. Her pursed lips opened and she let out a soft sigh of resignation. Of course he was right, even if she didn't want to admit it. What kind of help could she be if she was stuck on the past?
"Maybe you're right," she admitted finally, glancing down the endless hallway in the direction she knew her room to be - her tiny new home. "If this new power did not want me to have memories then it must be right. If I keep chasing memories I'll never be of any use." She glanced back at him, her face a little grim, though she tried to smile regardless. "I imagine there is no patience here for the useless, is there?" Not that she meant for him to really answer that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 1:35 am
He nodded, pleased that she'd accepted what he said. Later he'd consider the ramifications of what she said for himself. For now, though, he was going to just be pleased in the knowledge of a good deed.
"Perhaps one day it'll be possible for your memories to be regained, through the power of the Queen," he suggested, with a little shrug. "But for now, it's impossible, and the Generals have no patience for--well, for the useless, as you said." There was an apologetic smile, there, and he touched her shoulder. It wasn't amorous, just... brotherly, if anything. "I should return home. My cousin will be getting worried." After a moment, he turned a brighter smile to her. "Perhaps we'll see each other again."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 4:18 pm
She nodded slowly as he spoke of the queen and her abilities, though she knew deep down that the queen had no reason to bestow any such gift on her. Maybe if she could prove herself, show the queen that she was worthy of such a gift, then she would have a right to claim it. That, at least, was something worth fighting for.
"Oh," she blinked a few times and glanced back at him, drawn out of her intense thinking. She was so concentrated on her memories that sometimes she forgot her immediate surroundings - like the other corrupt she was talking to. "It's fine, I enjoyed your company while you were here. I'm sure we'll see each other sooner rather than later."
She gave him her own bright smile and curled the bouquet of wild flowers closer to herself. Then, with a small wave and a softly spoken "goodbye", she turned back towards the direction of her room. Her next mission was to find a vase and some water in this impossible maze.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
