[Reg] Red-Light Healing (BMC)

[kalindara]

Birhan had been running for Scylla and Albali when they were all abruptly dumped back in the warehouse. She uncerimoniously elbowed her way through the crowd of senshi to find Ares and the other BMC members.

"Ares!" she cried out, seeing their leader still gushing blood from the claw that had shot through her shoulder.

She nodded at Scylla's wisdom, not about to fight the need for treatment even if part of her was screaming that they need an ambulance, not a red light district, second-rate place. But Birhan knew that if Ares was given the choice, Ares would insist on the place that asked the least questions.

"Oh god, there's so much blood," she gulped, staring at Ares' wound. She recalled something about putting pressure on wounds... Ripping off her winged sailor collar (the only non-bloodied material left of her fuku, really), she bundled it up and pressed it against the hole close to her leader's collarbone. Ares wouldn't forgive Ari if she detransformed here, even if she was wearing a cardigan that would staunch the blood flow much better than her semi-transparent collar.

Birhan took Ares from Albali, leaving the other BMC member to manage Nemesis. She swung her gaze from Albali to Scylla. "She'll be okay, right?" Birhan asked. It was obvious to anyone around them that Birhan hadn't experienced wounds of this nature before.

But then, they might also notice that Birhan paid no attention whatsoever to the blood running from her own knife wounds - left hand, right arm, and a long, deep gash across her chest just under her collarbone. So it wasn't blood, per se, just the severity of the wounds that had the normally unflappable Birhan in a panic.



It seemed like forever and yet no time at all until Ares was cracking open her eyes in the red light hospital. Birhan's lips quirked upwards in relief as Ares' first demand was for a status report.

"You and Nemesis were hit the worst," she answered. She was seated close by Ares, as another tiny woman applied tiny stitches to Birhan's knife wounds. "These cuts won't take too long to heal up, now that they'll stay closed. And as for the whole starseed thing..." Birhan repressed a shudder, not entirely successful which earnt her jab in the arm and a sharp frown from her 'doctor'. "The memory of it is the worst of the after-effects by now."  

[Akina Tokuwa]

Ares drank in the words of her fellow Inner Sanctum Senshi slowly. There was a small room next door. The Senshi of Smoke could make out Nemesis' body lying in a similar chair. A woman bent over her, dabbing at her head. The senshi turned back to face the front. "Our tactics," she drawled, "need work. Once I am out of this bed, we need to hit the training field harder. We were too disorganized. I want to--" A shuddering cough cut her words short.

When the coughing had subsided, Ares let out a sigh. "This isn't over," she said at last. "A doorway has been opened. We got there because of the small child royal. How did the Negaverse get there? I thought that celestial tart said it was safe." Ares laughed darkly.



(( Krysin is going to post later. So just assume there are other BMCers milling about. XD Gunn is not here, also! ))  

[SpaceSalt]

Zirconia could only watch the fray, hoping to stay out of the way and let her senshi team do their thing. Unfortunately she had lost track of most of the others in her own effort to stay out of the battle, so being dropped in the warehouse again, the panicked feline was suddenly faced with the BMC's injuries and was suitably panicked, though, honestly, Ares' frightened her the most.

She was feeling even more useless as the Blood Moon court got their wounded to the Red Light District, eager to help but trapped as an animal considering with her two two-legged forms, one attracted danger and the other revealed her civilian identity to every strange senshi around. But in spite of feeling like she was little more than the team pet than a proper guardian cat, she followed, and silently stared at Ares until she woke up, asked for a report, and was given it by Birhan.

I thought that celestial tart said it was /safe/.

Zirconia didn't say anything and remained a silent presence, but Ares' comment made her frown, for some reason. If any human could recognize a shift from a worried cat to a frowning cat. But still, the implications just reinforced several thoughts the moon cat had been going over in her head:
Nowhere is ever safe, and White Moon royalty is dangerously incompetent.

 

[kalindara]

"Who knows how safe it really was, or wasn't," Birhan said. She frowned, unsure how much to discuss with other ears in the room. She supposed as long as it wasn't BMC info, it would be fine. "We only have the word of the White Moon's baby princess and some man that clearly was not a senshi that it was safe. They could have been lying or mistaken, or simply not known what they were talking about."

For someone who thought herself firmly on the side of good, Birhan wasn't falling into line with the whole, 'hi, here's your princess, follow her' thing. She was very sceptical of the so-called royalty. As a member of the ISS, she was well aware that you didn't have to BE a princess to claim the title. On top of that, Birhan's leader was from a parallel world, with different royalty. Birhan had really seen too much to blindly follow a young girl just because she said she was the daughter of the princess they'd been told to look for.

"Training sounds good," Birhan agreed glumly. She wasn't very thrilled with her performance today - starseed almost stolen, by a kid half her height (even if he had been Captain and actually the same age as her). She imagined Ares was even less pleased. No doubt there would be yelling, once their leader was recovered.

She was actually rather envious of Scylla and Albali, really. They were a good match, battle-wise. Birhan sort of wished she had a trainee, herself, but until such time as a worthwhile cadet present themself (and wasn't claimed by another BMC member), Birhan was on her own. Well, not really, she thought. She looked around the small room and couldn't help a tiny smile as she took in Ares, Scylla and Zirconia. None of the BMC were really alone anymore - they had each other. Their own, slightly violent and dysfunctional, family.  

[Lilwolfpard]

The wound... Lyra's arm wound was still bleeding.

Damn that red haired nega with the sword. He had gotten a lucky shot in... but it was such a clean cut that her arm was having issues clotting, she was leaving a dotty blood trail where ever she walked. Well in this instance, now sat. One of the 'nurses' in the red light district tried to approach Lyra to clean and tend to the wound, but she had shaken her head at them and told them to attend to the other members whom had larger issues. Lyra's wound was not deep, jsut painful and making a mess. Her head was browing light from blood loss, but she would ignore that for now.

"Neither of us really won, both took a lot of casualties and no one really got out without some sort of injurry....." She was speaking but not certain if she was being heard, she was a member of the BMC but she still never imagined herself as a influential one. Lyra really needed to make a point to get to know her court more, she had up till this point not been as active in making her voice heard... but she intended to change that.

"Training works... but also we need to keep active in the field... like the old saying, you learn more in the battlefield then out of a text book sometimes." She mused. "What we also need to know is really... how the hell did the negaverse get IN to Elysium"

(( Edit: Wanted to get a post in, im heading to bed ill tag in the morning guys!))  

[Akina Tokuwa]

Ares tried to sit up, but her wounds made her wince. She eased back in to the stiff cushion of the dental chair. "We have been preparing for months, and in our first real encounter, we scattered like rats and lost a cadet's life because of it," she said dryly. "I would not call that fairly well, Mercenary Scylla." There was no rage in her voice, not for Scylla, just a somber assessment of truths. Sailor Rota had been new, incredibly new, but that didn't mean she deserved to lose her life.

"Tell the Intels that we have a new priority on the table -- uncover the identity of the Nega who took Rota from us," she narrowed her gaze, "and kill him. We will send his body in pieces to the Negaverse. In his dying moments, he will wish he had been so lucky to die by a vial of paint to the eye when we are through with him."

It was bravado; it was brash. But Ares meant it. When the Blood Moon Court was attacked, it was their policy to respond tenfold. Her eyes found Birhan. "Please see to a ceremony for Rota -- with full honors. She died as a soldier, and we will honor her as if she were our captain." This was the first loss for the BMC. Ares planned on setting a precedent of remembrance. Those who signed their lives to the Blood Moon agreed to give their lives, if need be. They deserved all the respect in the world for their sacrifice. "I'd like flowers sent to her parents when the news of her death breaks. Please track down someone who knew her identity."

Scylla had said something else, hadn't she? Ah yes, Albali. It pleased Ares that she had come out mostly unscathed. This was her first true battle, and she had reacted with the prowess of someone with twice her experience. "Scylla, I would see you permanently partnered in battle with Albali. She may leave her previous patrol assignment. What you two did... well, you saved my life. I'm sure others too. I trust you implicitly."

Even in the hospital, the Blood Moon Court had fallen back into rhythm. People were in their roles -- even Zirconia. In a moment of quiet, Ares reached out a hand to touch the guardian cat lightly behind the ears. It was a seldom-seen sign of affection. Zirconia understood better than any of them what Elysion was, and what it meant for it to be intruded upon. The Black Moon had met the Dream-Priest before, and it hadn't been precisely on the best of terms.

Back then, Ares was merely a support system for Nehelenia through the mirror, but she had been as gung-ho about the Queen's actions then as she was in Destiny City before her passing. Her mind wandered to the actions of the Dream-Priest, the anger, the power. "I see now what happens when Helios is let out of his golden cage," she remarked idly. The comment would not make sense to anyone else in the room, save Zirconia. It referred to a time when the Black Moon had sought to destroy its White counterpart, an era that had remained a secret to the majority of the White Moon senshi.

Ares would see it kept that way, for now.

"Birhan is right, as is Lyra," she said suddenly, calling herself back to focus. "We have learned tonight that we cannot trust the royalty of the White Moon, or its keepers. We were promised safety and were given war. Who is to say that wasn't the plan all along? What do we really know of this Kurma? It sings of a trap, one that we all wandered blindly into. Chibimoon and Kurma brought us there to be attacked."  

[Lilwolfpard]

"If i might disagree, Ares?" Lyra had been listening to the conversation quietly mostly, only adding in her two cents here and there. "I dont know about Kurma... i dont really trust him that much. Someone with THAT much power and knowledge is bound to be hiding something." Lyra had met him back during the initial nstart to their 'home worlds' findings, he was....a bit of a odd man. He seemed to know a lot and yet liked to play with things as if they were toys. Hell he laughed and followed the senshi while they tried to kill that IMPOSSIBLE youma. If he was truly out to help... he would have helped kill it right?

"But i have met chibimoon before... and i really think she is looking out for the best of all senshi, no matter the courts. She could see my marking clearly after that last meeting... and she came to me afterwords, liking the ideas of the mentor programs and training. If she really was out to kill the senshi i doubt she would have been so interested in making sure we were strong. Also just... " She was unsure how to word this. " I just felt like i could trust her." She shrugged. Lyra was still BMC through and through, but that didn't mean she couldnt trust another courts princess..right?  

[Akina Tokuwa]

Sailor Ares touched her chin. "I appreciate your feedback, Lyra," she said. And then: "Perhaps the celestial guide is manipulating her? She seems like the type to be easily manipulated..." Gray eyes searched the room for opinions from the rest of the Court.  

[kalindara]

Birhan shrugged at the idea of this 'Kurma' person being the villain and manipulating this Chibimoon senshi. "It's possible," she said. "It's also possible that they're both in on it. This Chibimoon may simply be a good actress. We know nothing about either of them. An interest in mentoring may be nothing more than a plan to 'mentor' other senshi into fitting with their own plans."

She could see Lyra was clearly fond of the so-called princess, though, so she (reluctantly) added, "But I haven't met either of them, so I could be wrong."

Birhan's speciality was not Intel - no where close - but she thought Lyra's best point had been earlier on. "Perhaps we should also see if we can find how the Negaverse entered Elysion," she echoed Lyra's first suggestion. "It would be worth knowing for sure if there was a spy or traitor among the senshi, or some other gap in Elysion's defense that they have discovered."

Not that the Negaverse was likely to volunteer such information. "I hear Gunn and her unit have had some good success with retrieving information from captured Negaverse agents," Birhan said, her voice low but level. After being on the receiving end of a failed starseed ganking, she felt considerably less 'humanity' towards the Negaverse. It mattered even less than before how Gunn achieved her results, or what a corrupted human might suffer. "If the rest of us sound out any Negas we come across, we can report in if we find someone who seems to know more about their entrance to Elysion."

She sat back, a little uncomfortable at suggesting such a plan. For all that Birhan was in the ISS, she mostly went along with the suggestions of others. The only waves she wanted to make were the kind that smashed down the Negaverse. "At the very least, we would be doing more than the White Moon royalty," she concluded. "And it may prove Lyra right about the white princess." Or wrong - either way was fine, as long as there was a definitive answer.  

[nessy]

Albali was rather pleased at the chance to be able to play with a useful attack more often than previously. Her patrols had been uneventful and while she'd engaged a lieutenant or two in hand-to-hand combat it was unrealistic that she continue to be out alone for much longer. Praise from her mentor also went quite a long way towards padding the fact that they had lost a life, and they had lost the battle. What had happened anyway? One minute she was smacking some idiots with a tentacle and then the next...they were back where they'd come from.

The Senshi of Echoes was content to sit with her back to the wall, pigtailed head between her knees and listening intently to everything going on. Though her eyes were closed and every inch of her body registered exhaustion, Albali's mind was processing still through the events. Ares' last mention however, had her lifting her head. "She's a kid. Isn't he her father or something? They're always together and she's an affectionate little thing. If he's taking care of her, that's pretty powerful a sway if she is who she says she is. Mom and dad dead? No friends? Barely speaks English? Stockholm Syndrome isn't a myth."  

[SpaceSalt]

Zirconia's ears flicked just slightly at Ares's touch but otherwise remained much of the same, unchanging and observing.

However, at Lyra's feedback she cleared her throat and sat up just a little straighter. "Purposely or unwittingly or forced, she's still leading us into ambushes, and that's all that matters."

Maybe her bias was showing a bit too much? It was hard to tell in her own mind if today's events had any baring at all on her opinions of the White Moon or if she simply had this opinion beforehand and it just had found the evidence it needed.

Still, the harsh tone in her voice was there and directed mostly at Lyra for suggesting the pink haired princess's innocence in the matter. Chibimoon was not well thought of at this point and the guardian cat personally held her responsible for the loss that transpired tonight. Whether or not that was fair would have to be reassessed once they knew how the Negaverse got into Elysion.

 

[Akina Tokuwa]

Birhan was making a good amount of sense, and Ares nodded along with her. Albali too had valid points to make. This was her core; these were her comrades. Even in the wake of defeat, the Senshi of Smoke felt pride in her team -- pride in them, and utter disappointment in herself. She was a disgrace. She was a failure. She should have prepared the senshi better. She should have been there for Sailor Rota. Her crimes were great, and she would be made to suffer for it at her own hands.

But that could come later.

After Zirconia chimed in, Ares took a moment to collect her thoughts. There was one piece of information that the others might not be aware of, something about Chibimoon, something that was relevant to this discussion. "Did any of you meet Wiseman or Black Lady?" she asked suddenly. "I know many of us were thrown into Tartaros together, and after that, both of those evil figures disappeared. The first is believed dead." Again, her eyes found Zirconia, sharing a silent mutual knowledge.

Ares let her hand rest in her lap. "But the Black Lady is still alive because," she drew the moment out, let it resonate, "she is Chibimoon." This knowledge was known to Ares because it had been known to Nehelenia. The revelation had come shortly before her death. The thought of her perished Queen brought a dark shade to the senshi's eyes. "Chibimoon was manipulated -- corrupted just as some of the White Moon senshi have been -- into a tool of destruction. There is no saying it couldn't happen again. So if you do trust her," Ares let her eyes rest on Lyra, "perhaps you should exercise some caution."

The woman who had been working on Birhan stopped suddenly, as if she had just realized that the cat had begun speaking. She blinked once and then resumed her work. God bless, the Red Light District women.